
Class _ 

Book *j2 



Copyright N 






COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE LAYMAN 



By 

CLAUDIUS B. SPENCER, LL. D. 




Cincinnati: Jennings and Graham 
New York: Eaton and Mains 



l f CONG****] 






COPTKIGHT, 1912, 

by Claudius B. Spenceb. 



4 ■ ^ 

gCLA309987 
'A- • / 



TO 

^H\t JELzqrmzn 

WITH WHOM, DURING A QUARTER OF A CENTURY, IT 

HAS BEEN MY HONOR AND HAPPINESS TO 

LABOR, I WOULD BE HAPPY TO 

v THIS APPEAL FOR THEIR PROPER RECOGNITION. 



PREFACE 

This little book is scarcely more than 
a tract. It does not assume to be a 
treatise. It is an effort simply to 
bring together the questions involved 
in the discussion of the right and ad- 
vantages of the lay participation in 
the Business Conference of the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church. Whilst 
authorities are not quoted for all 
statements, it Trill be found that the 
statements made are in accord with 
modern scholarship. The first chap- 
ter, for example, flows from such in- 
vestigations as those of W. Robertson 
Smith and Maine; the second from 
the graphic pages of Hatch, Harnack, 
McGiffert, TTestcott, and Rigg. In 
other chapters I have had the ad- 
5 



PEEFACE 

vantage of assistance from several 
friends in Great Britain and Ireland ; 
from Bishop Carman and Chancellor 
Burwash in Canada; Bishops Hoss, 
Hendrix, Wilson, and Drs. Alexander, 
Ivey, and Snyder in the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South; and Chan- 
cellor Stephens in the Methodist Prot- 
estant Chnrch. This by no means ex- 
hausts the list, but to these I am es- 
pecially indebted. 

The effort of this book is "not to 
destroy, but to fulfill;" to take the 
existing institutions of both ministe- 
rial and lay activity and co-ordinate 
them, weaving them, without the loss 
of a single vested power, into co-oper- 
ation, and even union. It is a sugges- 
tion and a program by which there 
may at last be in very truth an An- 
nual CONFERENCE OF THE CHURCH. 

Central Christian Advocate, 
Kansas City, April 2, 1912. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Chapter I. 
The Priesthood of the Laity, - 11 

Chapter II. 
The New Testament Church, - 23 

Chapter III. 
Methodicm in America, - - - 39 

Chapter IV. 
The Struggle in Great Britain, 50 

Chapter V. 
The Entrance of the Laity, - 63 

Chapter VI. 
What is the Annual Conference ? 91 

Chapter VII. 
At the Seat of Conference, - 105 

7 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Chapter VIII. 
Where Laymen Participate, - 118 

Chapter IX. 

The Annual Conference of the 

Church, ----- 144 



The Layman 



CHAPTER I 

THE PRIESTHOOD OF THE 
LAITY 

What is a layman? As a matter of 
fact, is not the word used to indicate 
what a man is not, one who in a 
sense is outside the pale? If a ques- 
tion arises in medicine, the law, the 
sciences, the fine arts, the ministry, 
and a man professes that in the field 
under discussion he "is a layman," 
he professes at once also that in that 
field he does not assume to speak as 
an authority, that he wishes it under- 
stood that his opinion is in a sense 
discredited because he speaks from 
outside. It carries the implication of 
a certain inferiority. 
11 



THE LAYMAN 

The layman? The word harks back 
to the word Aaos, which, occurring 
not less than 1,500 times in the Sep- 
tuagint, is the special title of God's 
chosen people as distinguished from 
the nations about them. The nations 
were "goyirn," Wvq, "gentes," the 
world outside. The word is a choice 
word. It refers to a community, espe- 
cially privileged and blessed; it refers 
to a covenant people, peculiarly en- 
dowed with access to God, peculiarly 
recognized as possessing a deposit of 
spirituality and favor which made 
them priests. The Aaoi were "priests 
unto God." 

In the beginning there was no spe- 
cialized priesthood. In the morning 
of the world, in those ages when the 
cathedrals of humanity were the open 
sky, our Aryan fathers had no such 
12 



PRIESTHOOD OF THE LAITY 

classes as priest and layman. The 
father was the pries c in his own 
house. In the early pre-Mosaic ages 
the father, the patriarch, was priest. 
The background of the Book of Job, 
a son of the desert, who feared God 
and worked righteousness, offering 
sacrifices every morning in his sons' 
families in succession, there, in the 
oases of the East, is the picture of 
the priesthood of the people in the 
earliest antiquity. Among the Sem- 
ites outside the Hebrew community 
there never has been a specialized 
priesthood; and until long after the 
Conquest, a full thousand years and 
more after the call of Abraham, the 
structure of Hebrew society was 
quite similar to that of other Semitic 
tribes. "David's sons," says 2 Sam. 
8:18, "were priests," which scholars 
13 



THE LAYMAN 

regard as a perpetuation of the old 
household priesthoods. And as for 
the laity, the Aao?, the great names 
of Israel, Samuel, David, Solomon, 
Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Isaiah, Jere- 
miah, none of whom were of any dis- 
tinctively priestly class, did not hesi- 
tate to speak as the oracles of God, 
approaching Him and becoming His 
mouthpiece. "Samuel, who was not 
a priest, nor even a Levite, performed 
every function of a priest all his life 
long." When the temple is dedi- 
cated, Solomon, the king, "is the one 
predominant figure, and the high 
priest is not once mentioned." There 
is no ground in the Old Testament 
for any theory that the ministry is a 
privileged class, invested with any ex- 
clusive right to declare the counsels 
of God, whether as to personal lioli- 
14 



PRIESTHOOD OF THE LAITY 

ness or as to the policy or polity of 
the theocracy. The people were the 
royal priesthood; they were individu- 
ally " priests " and "kings." And 

from the people, and not from the 
priestly line, from him who had been 
the shepherd of the Bethlehem hills, 
and whom God had exalted to be at 
once king over united Israel and the 
singer of its Psalms, the liturgy of 
believers through all time, came in 
due time Jesus Christ, King of kings 
and the one final priestly sacrifice. 

It is somewhat apart from our ob- 
ject in this little book, and yet it may 
be worth while to note the priesthood 
of the laity as developed in the Xew 
Testament Church. It was predicted 
as if it were fundamental in the Xew 
Dispensation that the Spirit should 
be poured upon all flesh, upon the peo- 
15 



THE LAYMAN 

pie as a whole. And at Pentecost that 
promise was fulfilled. Says Bishop 
Westcott : 

"The gift of Pentecost was a com- 
mon gift. It was the endowment of 
a body representative of all believers. 
In this the gift of the Spirit was not 
for the Apostles alone, or for any one 
class, but for all who had embraced 
the message of the resurrection. It 
is our inheritance as Christians, and 
we need to remember that it is the 
inheritance of all, to be administered 
by all." 

Proceeding, this great churchman 
and scholar upbraids the National 
Church of England for her remissness 
in summoning her laity to their duties 
as preachers. "We have not pressed 
upon them boldly enough," he ex- 
claims, "the duty of prophetic min- 
istry. We have not charged them to 
16 



PRIESTHOOD OF THE LAITY 

stir up the grace that is in them." 
He declares that the Church can not 
fulfill her duty until every Church- 
man is such a worker. In conse- 
quence the great National Church is 
"in danger from what is called 'the 
slow suicide of idleness.' " Dilating 
still farther he again confesses of the 
National Church, "She has wronged 
the brotherhood and wronged the 
world." "Yet," he exclaims, "God 
has promised to pour forth His Spirit 
on all flesh, and your young men shall 
see visions — visions which shall bring 
back a lost glory to the earth. And 
your old men shall dream dreams — 
dreams which are the foreshadowings 
of that better order of things which 
God hath prepared for us." 

Would to God that the Methodist 
Episcopal Church would lay these 
2 17 



THE LAYMAN 

things to heart! "Would to God that 
in a time when the harvest is so plen- 
teous, when humanity is so at sea, 
when the gods of gold tremble in their 
shrines because they have become 
nauseating to the rich and hated by 
the poor, when the multitudes have 
none too kindly a feeling towards the 
Churches, and are bewildered and 
hungry hearted, would to God that 
Methodism might once more in this 
land avail herself of her inherited re- 
sources in her lay priesthood, her lay 
ministry, those upon whom the new 
Pentecost would come, but who are 
now doing so little because so little 
is required of them! "The power 
of Pentecost,' ' exclaims this same 
saintly bishop of the Durham Ca- 
thedral, "is still unexhausted. The 
wind fell: the flames died away: the 
18 



PRIESTHOOD OF THE LAITY 

voices ceased: but a life was quick- 
ened — a Church was sent forth con- 
quering and to conquer.' ' 

Tolerate yet another word. John 
Wesley used to point out that our 
Lord was a layman: "Is not this the 
carpenter?" He recalled with grati- 
tude the Moravian mechanic and lay 
preacher, Christian David, who at 
Herrnhut had been as an angel of God 
to him, albeit he, Wesley, was an Ox- 
ford Brahmin and in orders. John 
Wesley has been called the St. Francis 
of the eighteenth century. Each sum- 
moned the laity. "The Methodist, 
like the Friar Minor, took the 
world as his p'arish;" and the lay 
preacher was the herald. Each 
"planted himself in the crowded cities 
and among the outcast populations;" 
and the humble lay worker was his 
19 



THE LAYMAN 

right hand. "With due allowance for 
the differences of the time, the 
methods as well as the objects of 
Wesley were singularly like those of 
St. Francis.' 5 There was a similar 
renunciation, a similar use of hymns, 
— similar obstacles, sneers, dislike, 
trials. Both went to those who 
needed them most. Both used field 
preaching. Both preached perfection. 
But the point that moves us most 
in this connection is that the early 
preachers of both Francis and Wes- 
ley were laymen. And Francis re- 
tained his appeal to and for the laity 
till the end. Till this day those Fran- 
ciscans who are in orders and the 
lay brothers wear precisely similar 
habits to show to each other and to 
the world that their equality is iden- 
tical. Unquestionably we are suffer- 
20 



PRIESTHOOD OF THE LAITY 

ing because lay preaching, lay evan- 
gelism, lay class leaders, are so un- 
used — one might say, disparaged. 

When we recall what laymen have 
done as preachers, Samuel Drew, 
William Carvosso, "William Dawson, 
Thomas Thompson, Philip Embury, 
Captain Webb, of the early time, 

"Meek, simple followers of the Lamb, 
They lived, and spoke, and thought the 

same, 
They joyfully combined to raise 
Their ceaseless sacrifice of praise ;" 

when we recall the mighty lay evan- 
gelists who, in spite of the unserip- 
tural prejudice against them, have 
appeared from time to time, who can 
fail to ciy aloud to God that He, 
even He, would let burst a new Pente- 
cost upon ''all flesh M once more — that 
Methodism may not waste away 
21 



THE LAYMAN 

tlirougli "the slow suicide of idle- 
ness?" For, God be thanked! what- 
ever we of this day may do or fail 
in the doing, there will remain among 
the resident forces of Methodism her 
doctrine of the priesthood of the 
laity: and this fact is the guarantee 
that, as the acorn under favorable con- 
ditions one day comes to its own in 
the oak, under favorable conditions 
this Scriptural and essential co-part- 
nership of the laity will come to their 
own in their recognition in both the 
legislation and the business manage- 
ment of the Church. 



22 



CHAPTER H 

THE NEW TESTAMENT 
CHUECH 

The government of the Early Church 
"was not committed to ecclesiastics. 
On the contrary, the apostles them- 
selves did not have any official posi- 
tion either in the local Church or in 
the Church at large. They were mis- 
sionaries, itinerants, witnesses of the 
resurrection, declaring what they had 
seen as companions of the Savior, 
and preaching with power from on 
high. They did not hold any office 
in Jerusalem, nor is there any proof 
that they were office-holders in the 
Church at large. They had a vast 
power, but, as it were, no technical 
powers. They met in the councils and 
23 



THE LAYMAN 

local communities, they took part in 
the debates and voted on pending 
questions, but there was no hier- 
archy clothed with powers unshared 
by the people. St. James, the Lord's 
brother, took part in the Council at 
Jerusalem, but the letter from the 
Council to the Gentile Christians in 
Antioch was sent not by the hierarchy, 
but by the Apostles, the elders, and 
"the whole Church." Indeed, St. 
James, the Lord's brother, was prob- 
ably not one of the Twelve; being 
therefore on the outside of the apos- 
tolic college, he himself is the defini- 
tive proof that there was no super- 
mundane and intrinsic prerogative 
which invested even the apostles with 
a right to rule which might not be 
possessed by the elders, yet by the 
people themselves. 
24 



NEW TESTAMENT CHUKCH 

The point is worth a moment's re- 
flection. The Twelve possessed the 
greatest influence. They had been 
the Savior's companions while He 
tabernacled among us; they had 
walked with Him through the vil- 
lages; with Him they had sat down 
on the mountainside; they had seen 
His gracious miracles; they had re- 
ceived instruction from His lips. 
They were therefore in the nature 
of things charged with a heavier re- 
sponsibility than other disciples; but 
they were not charged with the rule 
of the Church. So far as the New 
Testament is concerned, it is a dog- 
matic and unsupported assumption to 
claim that there is any divine right 
of the ministry to rule the Church. 
The apostles did possess the highest 
function in the Church, but it was 
25 



THE LAYMAN 

spiritual; they were the recipients of 
the highest consideration, but it was 
the reverence we pay to holiness and 
its message first hand from the lips 
of Christ. They owed their distinc- 
tion and their influence not to any 
temporal power, not to any throne of 
office in any local congregation or in 
the Christian community at large; 
they owed whatever honor and au- 
thority they possessed to a spiritual 
commission, to the fact that they had 
been the comrades of the Savior, that 
they had heard the blessed words that 
fell from His lips, and were witnesses 
and missionaries of His death, His 
resurrection, and His ascension to the 
right hand of God on high. The real 
authority of the apostles is the au- 
thority of the minister still, not any 
sole and jealously guarded prerogft- 
2fi 



NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH 

tive to rule; tliey possessed that 
which transcended all man-made dis- 
tinctions, soaring aloft to the throne 
of God whence they returned to speak 
as witnesses of that which has already 
been spoken to them by the Spirit. 

The same summary holds good both 
of the "prophets" and of the "teach- 
ers" in the classic passage in 1 Cor. 
xii : 28, written to the disciples in the 
great city where Paul had labored for 
well-nigh two years. The ' ' prophets ? ' 
and "teachers" were held in high 
honor and they spoke with authority 
and power; but they, neither of them, 
held any distinctive office in the tem- 
poralities of the Churches. In the 
young community they took their 
place with the disciples, so far as we 
have any clue. Immediately after 
Pentecost, "when the number of dis- 
27 



THE LAYMAN 

ciples was multiplying, ' ' "the Twelve 
called the multitude of disciples to- 
gether" and called upon them to 
select the deacons to manage the busi- 
ness of the little but growing com- 
munity. "And the saying pleased the 
whole multitude: and they chose 
Stephen." 

In his unanswered monographs 
Hatch has shown that the laity and the 
clergy had interblending powers in the 
machinery of the Early Church. He 
tells us that "the whole body of Chris- 
tians was upon a level : 'All ye are 
brethren.' " The distinctions which 
St. Paul makes between Christians are 
based not upon office, but upon varie- 
ties of spiritual power. The laymen 
were preachers. One of the most in- 
teresting monuments of the second 
century, Hatch reminds us, consists 
28 



NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH 

of a sermon or homily which was 
preached by a layman at Rome, a 
fragment of which has long been 
known as the Second Epistle of Clem- 
ent. This is but one illustration. 

As time passed the organization of 
the Christian community was neces- 
sary; and here the customs of the 
times came into play. The com- 
munal idea pervaded not only Pales- 
tine, but survived in the Graeco-Roman 
world. Rome, Athens, Sparta, the 
West were municipalities governed 
by committees — committees of officers. 
The Christian communities took on 
the same shape. The committees, the 
" older men," hence the presbyters, 
oi Trpeaf3vTepoi 9 came to supervise and to 
rule the company of disciples. They 
visited the sick, provided for the or- 
phans and widows, turned back those 
29 



THE LAYMAN 

who had gone astray, sat in merciful 
judgment on those who had committed 
a wrong. They met in a place which 
came to be called a basilica or court- 
house, and their tasks were mainly 
those of discipline. 

This, too, passed. The state of so- 
ciety changed. The episcopacy was 
evolved. The ruling power of the 
clergy was increased. The very name 
pastor — which comes from "the shep- 
herd life of Eastern and Southern 
Palestine, where a shepherd wandered 
with his flocks of almost innumerable 
sheep over almost boundless tracts of 
moorland" — carried with it the idea 
of ruling. The pastor as a good shep- 
herd safeguarded his flock, cared for 
the broken, repressed the headstrong, 
sought those who had strayed away 
from the flock. Thus the idea of the 
30 



NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH 

pastor grew into the idea of ruling 
and of feeding. Little by little the 
laity, so to say, were excluded from 
ecclesiastical functions, and these in 
turn came to mean the entire spiritual 
and temporal administration of the 
Church. At first a layman might not 
preach if a bishop were present, says 
Hatch: and then not if any Church 
officer was present : and finally not at 
all. At first the vote of laymen as 
well as the nascent clergy was taken 
in cases of discipline ; finally the lay- 
men had no place whatever in ec- 
clesiastical matters. It was carried 
so far that a close screen was put up 
so as to completely shut out the laity 
even from seeing the altar. It did not 
take long for the clergy to grasp the 
temporal oversight, or for powerful 
personalities to develop the historic 
31 



THE LAYMAN 

episcopate. The Church blended the 
theory of spiritual dominion, as a part 
of the Kingdom of G-od on earth, with 
the powers, also ordained of God, 
which had the rule over His temporal 
estate. Hence arose the fundamental 
principles of the unity of Church and 
State, in the Catholic ideal, the Church 
over all and the hierarchy over the 
Church, towering over them all rising 
the Pontifex Maximus, the spiritual 
and temporal Caesar, the august 
Bishop of Borne. It was but the 
natural application of this principle 
that there should develop the making 
of great temporal lords wearing the 
crimson of hierarchical distinction, 
statesmen cardinals, — such mighty 
names as Cardinals Consalvi, "Wolsey, 
and Eichelieu; such popes as Leo 
and Hildebrand. Even yet the Caesar 
32 



NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH 

by the Tiber dreams of a return of 
temporal power; it is fundamental 
to the right of the clergy to rule. 
At the same time we must bear in 
mind, as a proof of the essential right 
of the laity to participate in the 
business government of the Church; 
the fact that in the scheme of the 
Catholic machine a layman may be- 
come a cardinal, and that laymen are 
cardinals to-day. Moreover, nothing 
in the remarkable rule the present 
pontiff, Pius X, is giving the Catholic 
world has aroused our interest more 
than his edicts stripping the parish 
clergy of their well-known power to 
rule in the temporalities of their in- 
stitutions and parishes, and investing 
that prerogative again in the laity, the 
pope cutting these historic powers 
away from the clergy under the pro- 
3 33 



THE LAYMAN 

fession that he would "restore all 
things" to the apostolic ideal. 

At the same time it seems evident 
that the apostolic brotherhood — that 
is to say, the clergy, to use the ver- 
nacular of the present day — were 
charged with the "word of G-od" and 
with the two sacraments. To them 
was committed the custody of the 
1 ' word of God. " "It is not fit, ' ' they 
said, "that we should forsake the 
word of God to serve tables ;" there- 
fore, that they might continue stead- 
fastly in prayer, and in the ministry 
of the Word "by the suffrages of all 
the company, or infant Church, there 
were chosen seven men "appointed 
over the business." This invests the 
"ministry of the Word," the choice, 
the ordination, the character, the dis- 
cipline, the appointment, of the "min- 
34 



NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH 

isters of the Word" in the successors 
of the acknowledged "ministers of 
the Word" till this day. The regula- 
tion or oversight of the ministry is 
not a function of lay power. That 
the Methodist Episcopal Church has 
ever recognized. And we trust that 
principle will never be invaded by any 
rash and intrusive presumption until 
the end of time. 

To what end then have we come? 
Is it not to the fact that there is no 
Scriptural warrant for the assumption 
that the ministry, as a class, have the 
exclusive right either to rule the 
Church, or to dictate the business of 
the Church? that it is an unwarrant- 
able and somewhat uncomplimentary 
assumption that the clergy either have 
the right to seize and appropriate 
the dictation of the business of the 
35 



THE LAYMAN 

Church, or that, through the action of 
historic forces, possessing that power, 
they should regard it, at least from 
the New Testament standpoint, as a 
presumption and an intrusion on the 
part of the laity, if the latter, in this 
land of representative institutions, 
venture to believe they, too, should 
have some part in directing the 
Church's business? that in the pass- 
ing of resolutions, in the voting of 
levies, in the fixing of institutions, in 
the progressive programs for the suc- 
cessive conference years, the laymen 
should have some voice? 

Have we not learned that from the 
standpoint of the New Testament — 
as well as the Old — that the seat of 
prestige and authority on the part of 
the ministry is a spiritual prestige and 
authority? The vivid pages of Har- 
36 



NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH 

nack, Hatch, McGiffert, Ranisay, make 
all this as clear as noon. In this, 
moreover, the fact of the New Testa- 
ment and the fundamental laws of 
psychology as we now understand 
them are in perfect accord. Nor can 
we think of any worse blow that could 
in these times be struck the real in- 
fluence of any spiritual ministry than 
to have that ministry give it out as 
a finality that it intends to hug to 
itself any powers placed by past ages 
in its hands, simply and solely because 
those powers are in its hands. "Let 
him get who can: let him keep who 
holds 9 9 is scarcely the theme of a spir- 
itual ministry. Christ not Pilate is 
the ministerial ideal; not the rule of 
force, but the rule of vicarious love. 
However, the assumption is false. 
Our ministry never has based its te- 
37 



THE LAYMAN 

nacity at any point on the right of 
possession. The ministry accepts the 
doctrine that we are one in Christ 
and members one of another. It 
showed its readiness to lay down its 
historic exclusive right to rule, when 
it became clear that that was just. 
It went in advance of the laity in this. 
It has the same attitude towards the 
principle of justice to-day. 



38 



CHAPTER III 

METHODISM IN AMEEICA 

One is surprised, perhaps, to discover 
that the early Conferences held by the 
Methodist preachers on the continent 
of America were not called ' ' Confer- 
ences" but "Conversations." The 
full title of the first Conference Min- 
utes, as disclosed by the ancient vol- 
ume in our hand as we write this 
line, is "Minutes of Some Conversa- 
tions between the Preachers in Con- 
nexion with the Reverend Mr. John 
Wesley, Philadelphia, June, 1773." 
Five "Questions" only were consid- 
ered: (1) Fealty to Mr. Wesley; (2) 
the doctrine and discipline as pre- 
scribed in the Wesleyan standard; 
39 



THE LAYMAN 

(3) The exclusion of such preachers 
as deviated from that standard — the 
"Kules" pursuant to that standard 
being laid down in six paragraphs; 

(4) "How are the preachers sta- 
tioned ?" (there were ten) ; (5) "What 
numbers are there in the Society?" 
The year following, the " Questions " 
included the passing of the character 
of the preachers, "Who are admitted 
on trial?" "Who are admitted?" 
"How are the preachers stationed?" 
the statistics; and certain rules as 
to the support of the preacher, the 
preacher's horse, and the taking of a 
"general collection" at Easter. 

An old print of that first Confer- 
ence shows ten men, all clerically 
garbed, all Europeans. No layman 
seems to be present. And yet, what 
would Methodism in these colonies 
40 



METHODISM IN AMEEICA 

have been but for such, for example, 
as 6 6 Philip Embury, Schoolmaster," 
and Robert Strawbridge going in 
every direction, and " wherever he 
went he raised up preachers," " wher- 
ever he preached sinners were con- 
verted." These were laymen. And 
yet when the societies met in Confer- 
ence, no layman was allowed to utter 
a word. 

The key to all this is found in the 
first two questions of that first Con- 
ference : 

1. Ought not the authority of Mr. 
AVesley and that (British) Confer- 
ence to extend to the Preachers and 
people in America as well as in Great 
Britain and Ireland? Answer, Yes." 

2. Ought not the doctrine and Dis- 
cipline of the Methodists, as contained 
in the Minutes, to be the sole rule of 
our conduct, who labor in the con- 

41 



THE LAYMAN 

nexion with Mr. Wesley in America? 
Answer. Yes." 

It is then a question as to the atti- 
tude of Mr. "Wesley towards lay par- 
ticipation in the business of the Con- 
nexion: and this we know was so hos- 
tile that he would allow them no voice 
whatever. This hostility increased, if 
possible, with his years. January 13, 
1790. he wrote to John Mason, "'As 
long as I live, the people shall have no 
power in choosing either stewards or 
leaders among the Methodists " — that 
is to say. in the management even of 
the common business matters of their 
local societies: "we are no republic- 
ans and never intend to be." How 
would it be as regards laymen in the 
Annual Conference, when this was the 
ecclesiastical system? There can be 
but one answer. 

42 



METHODISM IN AMERICA 

It is not to be understood that this 
was satisfying to the people of the 
young Republic. Had not the Revolu- 
tion, champion of representative in- 
stitutions, destroyed the absolutist 
principle in this hemisphere? Lay- 
men continued to be used in all man- 
ner of spiritual work; they conducted 
revivals, led classes, contributed to 
the building of the denomination ; but 
when they approached the Conference 
the portcullis was down and the wall 
was defended by absolute prerogative. 
The people complained. Before there 
was yet any General Conference 
(1792) the fathers in the ministry as 
well as in the laity strenuously com- 
plained. By 1791 there was a formi- 
dable schism, and by 1792 the seces- 
sions began which were to tear out of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church not 
43 



THE LAYMAN 

a few of its choicest souls. The early 
part of the last century witnessed the 
appeal of the people, ministerial and 
lay, for lay participation in the legis- 
lation and business of the Church. 
By 1816 the local preachers asked 
for representation; in 1821 the laity 
pressed their case. In 1822 the Wes- 
leyan Repository was founded in 
Philadelphia for agitating the cause; 
in 1824 a society was organized for 
the same purpose ; in the same year a 
newspaper was founded to agitate its 
claim; in 1826 a petition was circu- 
lated through the Church praying the 
General Conference, to meet in 1828, 
to concede the right; and in 1827 a 
convention was called to further me- 
morialize the General Conference 
then due in a few months. 

The General Conference of 1828 
44 



METHODISM IX AMERICA 

adopted a report submitted by John 
Emory, that, inasmuch as the minis- 
try is '• divinely called" to preach, it 
must be responsible to God for its 
ministrations, and must, therefore, 
have a divine right to control them, 
without authoritative interference 
from the laity: in other words,, a di- 
vine right to govern the Church. 

This statement, summarized by Dr. 
Abel Stevens, which was looked upon 
as unanswerable, shows a monstrous 
confusion; it denies the essential 
priesthood of the entire body of 
Christ: it denies the construction of 
the apostolic Church: it is the founda- 
tion stone of the papal system. It 
failed to separate between the spir- 
itual functions of the prophetic and 
apostolic ministry, and the "serving 
of tables," It could not endure. It 
45 



THE LAYMAN 

was destined after long years of 
struggle to be shattered to fragments ; 
albeit the triumph of what seems to 
be justice and expediency, as well as 
the fundamental allegiance to the 
apostolic ideal of the holiness and the 
community of privilege of all believ- 
ers, seems not yet fully come. 

However, these latter paragraphs 
are somewhat outside the purpose of 
this chapter. We are here aiming at 
summoning back the portrait of the 
Conference during a period when as 
yet there was no General Conference. 
It was a period when the Wesleyan 
movement had for all this land but ten 
preachers. They and their later col- 
leagues and successors, as Dr. Abel 
Stevens said, were the "evangelical 
cavalry, " of whom Professor Tipple 
with dramatic burst has character- 
46 



METHODISM IN AMERICA 

ized: "In every chapter [of Stevens's 
History of American Methodism] yon 
feel the rnsh and haste of the restless 
men who were commissioned to herald 
the good tidings. . . . ' Rapid ad- 
vance of the Church,' ' Methodism en- 
ters Kentucky,' 'Garrettson pioneers 
Methodism up the Hudson,' 'Asbury 
itinerating in the South,' 'McKendree 
goes to the West,' ' Colbert in the wil- 
derness,' 'the itinerants among the 
Holston Mountains,' 'Philip Gatch 
appears in the north-west territory,' 
'Robert Hubbard drowned in the St. 
Lawrence,' " etc., etc. 

What does this mean? It can only 
mean that the real work of evangeli- 
zation of this new world was in large 
part the work of laymen , the local 
preachers who without hope of earthly 
reward took their place as preachers, 
47 



THE LAYMAN 

whilst these few itinerating members 
of the Conference were blazing the 
war, fording the streams, sleeping on 
the ground, pushing onward, rest- 
lessly ever onward, seeking the scat- 
tered sheep, organizing them into 
classes, setting over them lay preach- 
ers, and returning after an absence of 
weeks, if not months, to receive an 
accounting and to establish more 
firmly the faith of the societies. 

It seems strange, looking back 
across the generations from 1773 un- 
til the General Conference of 1912, 
that in the practical business of the 
Conference these laymen, entrusted 
with the spiritual life of the Church, 
the patrons of its press, the builders 
of its schools, the supporters of its be- 
nevolences, should be allowed no part. 
As the quadrenniums passed, after 
48 



METHODISM IN AMERICA 

stormy debates, much bitterness, sev- 
eral defections and forming of new 
denominations, the doors of the Gen- 
eral Conference were opened to them : 
but it seems more strange that, when 
that is done, the doors of that partic- 
ular Conference which transacts the 
business of the local, and, as it were, 
federated, societies, which decides the 
attitude of the Church on local issues, 
which, in short, deals with the iden- 
tical matters in which the laymen 
have a direct, personal, non-transfer- 
able, interest should in this late day 
keep its bars up full in the laymen's 
face. "No other great ecclesiastical 
body of the New World, except the 
Romanists," says Dr. Abel Stevens, 
"retained an exclusively clerical sys- 
tem of government." 



49 



CHAPTEE IV 

THE STRUGGLE IN GEEAT 
BEITAIN 

The struggle for the recognition of 
the laity in Methodist bodies is inter- 
esting, and a rapid sketch of it may 
be not without profit in this quest for 
a platform on which to stand with 
reference to the subject of this little 
book. 

It so happens that at the very first 
Conference held by Mr. Wesley, at the 
Foundry, London, June 25, 1774, con- 
sisted of the two Wesleys, four clergy- 
men, and four laymen. It was at this 
Conference that the doctrinal foun- 
dations of Methodism were formu- 
lated, and certain rules as regards 
50 



STRUGGLE IN GREAT BRITAIN 

polity adopted. It was decided by 
this Conference, for example, that 
"wherever they preached they ought 
to endeavor to form societies ; that the 
Methodists should be divided into 
four sections, namely, the united so- 
cieties, the bands, the select societies, 
and the penitents ;" rules for the 
united societies, the bands, the select 
societies and the penitents were fixed ; 
field preaching was approved; rules 
for class leaders were adopted ; and a 
long series of other regulations were 
adopted. They did not elaborate on 
ecclesiastical structure, to be sure, for 
the simple reason that inasmuch as 
the preachers and the people were, 
and were intended to remain, mem- 
bers of the Established Church, no 
such structure was required. 

The Second Conference, which met 
51 



THE LAYMAN 



in Bristol, August 1, 1745, had the 
Wesleys, one clergyman, six lay 
preachers, and one who was not a 
preacher at all, Mr. Marniaduke 
Gwynne, afterwards the father-in-law 
of Charles Wesley. Two days were 
spent in reviewing the doctrinal foun- 
dations. The third day the Confer- 
ence took up the matter of Church 
government. The question was asked: 
"Is Episcopal, presbyterian, or inde- 
pendent Church government most 
agreeable to reason?" Thus at the 
first laymen appeared in the councils 
of the Methodist movement. 

It must be said, however, that the 
presence of these laymen did not im- 
ply that they were clothed with actual 
legislative powers. They did not pos- 
sess them. In its last resort no one 
was invested with this power save 
52 



STRUGGLE IN GREAT BRITAIN 

Mr. Wesley himself. He was domi- 
nated by one principle, from which he 
never stepped aside, namely, his im- 
perial autocracy. He argued that, in- 
asmuch as he had originated the Meth- 
odist movement, and power had by 
circumstances providentially been 
thrust upon him, he could not divest 
himself of it. He therefore governed 
the societies; and until he drew his 
last breath he retained his absolutism. 
As to this irresponsible rule, he said : 
"None needs submit to it unless he 
will. Every preacher and every mem- 
ber may leave when he pleases." 

As to the laity, as he grew in years 
he grew more inflexible that, touching 
the real administration of the work, 
the laity should never have any power 
anywhere, either in its Conference or 
in the local Society. Only a year be- 
53 



THE LAYMAN 

fore his death (January 13, 1790) he 
wrote to John Mason: "As long as I 
live, the people shall have no power in 
choosing either stewards or leaders 
among the Methodists. . . . We are 
no republicans, and never intend to 
be." This piece of absolutism was 
destined to be shattered to pieces. 
But during his life, churchman that he 
was — possessing an organizing ability 
equal to that of Richelieu, denying 
himself everything as if he himself 
were a Carthusian monk, in an appro- 
priated abbey of which order (the 
Charterhouse School), he had been 
educated, calling his followers to no 
self-denial and no consecration he did 
not exemplify, whether in Georgia or 
flying to and fro in Britain, he was so 
constituted that he could but rule, al- 
beit he sought it not for his own sake, 
54 



STRUGGLE IN GREAT BRITAIN 

but as an initiatory organism for the 
spread of evangelical religion. And 
certainly the work he did justified his 
general proposition; for his work 
saved England from the terrors of 
the French Revolution, and gave 
Protestantism its model and challenge 
for world-wide evangelism. Con- 
structed as he was, animated by the 
principles that were his passion, be- 
lieving in his mission, he felt he could 
but keep the scepter in his own fin- 
gers. Dr. Beaumont compared him to 
a boatman on the Thames, with his 
eyes fixed on St. Paul's Cathedral, 
while every stroke of his oars drove 
him further away from it. Among 
other things this republican, or rep- 
resentative, conception of the move- 
ment which he forbade was destined 
to be shattered also. It was only 
55 



THE LAYMAN 

brought about after a truly ter- 
rible struggle, involving the seces- 
sion and formation of new Methodist 
bodies. 

On this rock of the rights of the 
laity to representation in the Church, 
the Methodist bark was to strike time 
and again. In 1797 the Methodist 
New Connexion struck from the par- 
ent body because of the refusal to pro- 
vide "lay representation. " Dr. Coke 
himself, in 1792, moved the expulsion 
of Kilham, like Wesley, born in Ep- 
worth, and one of the most brilliant 
writers and beautiful characters the 
Methodist movement has produced. 
He was the prophet of the Methodist 
New Connexion. Trouble over it all 
brought him to the grave in less than 
three years. 

The Primitive Methodists broke off 
56 



STRUGGLE IN GREAT BRITAIN 

and in 1820 organized a Church hav- 
ing lay participation as one of its 
principles. It has in its fold scholars 
and evangelists, and at the last Ecu- 
menical, Toronto, October, 1911, gave 
a good account of itself at every point. 
The Bible Christians had a history 
stranger than fiction. It was the 
spontaneous child of spiritual crises, 
the longing for souls, which grew into 
a movement — an expulsion — and a 
Church. It too had as a fundamen- 
tal principle, laymen along side the 
preachers in the Conferences. There 
were other schisms, in which the Wes- 
leyan body lost 100,000 members not 
inferior to any. "We write it with 
pain, but it is past ; and now there is 
concord, but it is necessary to state 
the fact to understand what lay par- 
ticipation in the business of Metho- 
57 



THE LAYMAN 



dism has cost. In the process of time 
three of these amalgamated, so to-day 
there are but three considerable Meth- 
odist bodies in Great Britain, with 
two minor organizations having each 
less than 9.000 members. 

The struggle in the "Wesleyan body 
may be judged from the foregoing 
paragraph. Lay representation was 
not only contested by the great Jabez 
Bunting and his party: it was fought; 
it was persecuted. But the tide could 
not be permanently checked. In IS 7?. 
eighty-seven years after Wesley's 
death, the struggle for lay represen- 
tation in the Conference swept over 
its barriers and became a fact. 

At the present time the Representa- 
tive Session, consisting of ministers 
and laymen, attend to business under 
the following heads : 
5S 



STRUGGLE IN GREAT BRITAIN 

(a) Time and place for holding the 
next Conference. 

(b) Official apportionments, depu- 
tations, and delegations. 

(c) Home and Foreign Missionary 
Deputations. 

(d) Xomination to Departmental 
Deputations. 

(e) Committees on Privileges and 
Exigency. 

(f) Foreign Missions. 

(g) Schools. 

(h) Chapel Affairs (England, Scot- 
land, Wales). 

(i) The Children's Fund. 

(j) Home Missions: (1) General; 
(2) Army and Navy; (3) Seamen's; 
(4) London Mission, etc. 

(k) Worn-out ministers and 
widows. 

(1) Theological Institutions. 

(m) Education: Sunday School 
Union, etc. 

(n) Higher education. 
59 



THE LAYMAN 

(o) Observance of the Lord's Day. 

(p) Extension of Methodism in 
Great Britain. 

(q) Temperance, 
and all matters relating to 

(r) District Sustentation Funds. 

(s) Alterations of circuits and dis- 
tricts against which there is any ap- 
peal. 

(t) All matters affecting the finan- 
cial or general affairs of the Con- 
nexion. 

These subjects are amplified in the 
Constitution and Polity of the Con- 
nexion, carefully safeguarding the 
rights of the Eepresentative Confer- 
ence. 

There is also a Conference of min- 
isters held at the same place and time 
but distinct from the Eepresentative 
Conference, to which all questions of 
ministerial character, ability, and dis- 
60 



STRUGGLE IN GEEAT BRITAIN 

cipline, all questions of appointments, 
"Pastoral Address/' public worship, 
conneetional literature, and pastoral 
supervision are by the Constitution 
referred. 

In Ireland Mr. Wesley held the 
scepter as in England. Both he and 
his brother Charles preached in Ire- 
land. The principles of ecclesiasti- 
cism have continued identical. Before 
and after Wesley's death the Irish 
Conference sustained an organic re- 
lation to the British Wesleyan body; 
that relation it sustains to-day. Up 
till the year 1876 the Irish Conference 
consisted exclusively of ministers in 
full connexion. In 1876, without the 
previous parturition labors through 
which the mother Church across the 
Channel had passed, the Conference 
provided for the participation of lay- 
61 



THE LAYMAN 

men in the business of the Confer- 
ence. As in England, there are two 
sessions of the Conference, the Repre- 
sentative and the Ministerial. The 
business of the Representative Ses- 
sion is quite identical with the Rep- 
resentative Session of the British 
Wesleyan Conference. The business 
of the Ministerial Session includes all 
matters relating to the admission of 
candidates, ministerial character, ap- 
peals on matters of Discipline, super- 
numerary preachers, and appoint- 
ments. 

As in the case of the British Wes- 
leyan Connexion, this participation 
and division works well. It is repre- 
sentative, democratic, and yet pre- 
serves to the ministry every preroga- 
tive essential to its independence, its 
self-respect, and its usefulness. 
62 



CHAPTER V 

THE ENTRANCE OF THE LAITY 

If among Christian communities there 
is any organized body in whose busi- 
ness councils the presence of the laity 
ought not only to be welcome, but so- 
licited, it would seem that the Meth- 
odist movement ought to furnish that 
body. Methodism itself is the product 
of lay activity. It is almost fifty 
years since Bishop Simpson, seeking 
a foundation for his intense plea for 
lay representation, drew this picture 
of our origins: 

"Methodism was from its begin- 
ning and is in its nature, the upris- 
ing and development of lay influence. 
What were the laity in the Churches 
63 



THE LAYMAN 

prior to Mr. Wesley's great movement 
in England? I speak of the English 
Churches. What did they do? What 
part did they take ? The minister con- 
ducted the services. There were no 
Church officers in the sense of our 
modern Church officers to exercise 
anything like spiritual functions. Mr. 
Wesley's great movement called lay 
influence into exercise in the Church. 
Class-leaders were appointed, stew- 
ards were called into action, exhorters 
were licensed, local preachers were se- 
lected, and there came up out of the 
ranks of the Church a body of lay- 
men to spread personal holiness 
through the Church. And what was 
the nature of the attack made on 
Methodism? It was attacked on this 
very ground — that it was profaning 
holy things; that it was calling lay- 
men to the exercise of ecclesiastical 
functions — and if you read the records 
of those times, and the history of the 
64 



ENTRANCE OF THE LAITY 

contests of those times, you will find 
that Wesley and the early Methodists 
were charged with this special crime 
of intruding men into the sacred of- 
fice who were unfit for the position, 
and of giving to laymen a part of the 
conduct of ecclesiastical affairs. 

"Methodism not only did this, but 
it came to the people teaching every 
man to work. It called upon men to 
pray; it called upon the women to 
speak ; and long before the days when 
women's rights were talked about, Mr. 
Wesley had our mothers talking in 
the prayer-meetings and in the class- 
meetings, many of them becoming 
burning and shining lights in the 
Church. And, sir, I believe there is 
many a man among us who owes much 
of what he is to the fact that his 
mother had learned to talk in the 
Methodist Church. Methodism is, in 
its essential action, an uprising of the 
popular element. Wesley selected 

5 65 



THE LAYMAN 

many of his preachers from laymen. 
He called them to go and preach the 
unsearchable riches of Christ. He 
gathered those preachers around him, 
and he counseled with them in refer- 
ence to carrying out his great work. 
So much for the usages of the 
Church." 

Methodism was, as Bishop Simpson 
said, in its essential genius an up- 
rising of the people — not only as a 
response to its message, but as the 
force by which it was carried for- 
ward with such astonishing strides. 
In this country it was the lay preacher 
that was the apostle to the wilderness 
and to the town; Philip Embury, the 
Palatine schoolmaster; Captain Webb, 
in his scarlet coat and gold braid, 
unbelting his sword as he announced 
his text; Eobert Strawbridge, of 
66 



ENTEANCE OF THE LAITY 

Maryland, lay preachers on whom 
rested the tongue of flame, — they and 
those they wakened laid the founda- 
tions of the faith along the Atlantic 
Coast from the Hudson to the Chesa- 
peake. And with them were such 
other laymen as Paul and Barbara 
Heck, Richard Bassett, member of the 
convention that framed the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, governor 
of Delaware, active Methodist, in 
whose house Coke and Whatcoat came 
on the Saturday before the Sunday on 
which Coke and Asbury met for the 
first time; Judge Philip Bassett, an- 
cestor of a long line of eminent Amer- 
icans, donor of Bassett 's Chapel, that 
fountain-head of Methodism in Mary- 
land, the humble but powerful patron 
of the young societies. Such men as 
these bore along the Methodist move- 
67 



THE LAYMAN 

ment in this New World. But were 
they allowed to participate in the leg- 
islation and general business of the 
nascent society? "When the Methodist 
Episcopal Church was formally organ- 
ized at the Christmas Conference in 
1784, no laymen were summoned. 

Why? It was due to an accident. 
It could not have been due to any in- 
terpretation of the principles of the 
young Nation which had been born in 
1776 and had won at Yorktown. It 
was due to the significant fact that 
John Wesley was bishop in this coun- 
try as well as in England. As late as 
1790 the Minutes ask the question, 
"Who are the persons that exercise 
the episcopal office in the Methodist 
Church in Europe and America? An- 
swer: John Wesley, Thomas Coke, 
Francis Asbury." 
68 



ENTRANCE OF THE LAITY 

John Wesley was one of the great 
characters of all time. He was a 
mystic* He was fascinated by the 
sermons of Tauler, that troubadour 
of the presence of Christ, whilst yet 
in Oxford; he was fascinated by the 
mystic doctrines and symbols of inte- 
rior religion, the supremacy of love, of 
illumination, of the conquest of self; 
he was even then "strongly persuaded 
in favor of solitude" and the mystic 
call "to the desert," Few men have 
ever lived whose study of the mystics 
was more wise or profound, whether 
those of Germany, Flanders, France, 
Italy, or Spain. There were multi- 
plied volumes of them in his "literary 
quarry," the fifty volumes he edited. 
He declared how to the mystic the 
soul, filled with the Divine Presence, 
becomes : 

69 



THE LAYMAN 

"A throne of peace: within thine 
own heart, with His heavenly grace 
thou mayest look for silence in tu- 
mult, solitude in company, light in 
darkness, vigor in despondency, cour- 
age in fear, resistance in temptation, 
peace in war, and quiet in tribula- 
tion. ' ' 

On this side of his character Wes- 
ley was one of the most amiable and 
beautiful of Christians. He was cour- 
teous, charming; he was venerated and 
he was loved. When he came from 
prayer his contemporaries bear wit- 
ness he had "a serenity that was next 
to shining." In his later days, "when 
he said ' Good-bye ' his face was as the 
face of an angel." 

But he was at the same time a 
statesman and a ruler. The oft- 
quoted tribute of Macaulay that he 
70 



EXTRAXCE OF THE LAITY 

had a genius for government not in- 
ferior to that of Richelieu ; the tribute 
of Sir Leslie Stephen that he was the 
greatest captain of men of his cen- 
tury — the century of Mirabeau and 
Pitt and of the French Revolution, if 
not of Xapoleon— seems warranted by 
the facts. His ability to organize and 
his ability to command were again il- 
lustrated in another member of the 
Wellesley or Wesley family, who, 
twenty or more years after John Wes- 
ley's death, met and stopped Xapoleon 
at Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington. 
Some one has said that all great Eng- 
lishmen have been men of indomitable 
will. Certainly it was true of Wesley. 
He believed that the place in which 
he had been put was the work of the 
Divine Providence. He did not seek 
71 



THE LAYMAN 

to found a new movement ; lie did not 
seek its responsibilities ; but once they 
were placed upon his shoulders and 
the scepter in his hand, he did not 
think he could put them aside, or even 
share them, in the last resort, with 
others. He summoned his workers to 
a self-denial in which he led the way. 
He gave them a doctrine of holy liv- 
ing which he himself illustrated and 
even magnified. If they could not 
travel with him, let them step aside. 
Like Hildebrand, Wesley did not seek 
power; but, like Hildebrand, power be- 
ing placed in his hand, he wielded it 
with a grip of steel. Thus on the one 
side he was the Methodist St. Francis, 
introspective, sympathetic, providing 
hospitals, clinics, schools, and all man- 
ner of "social service ;" and on the 
72 



ENTRANCE OF THE LAITY 

other, lie was the Methodist Loyola, 
ruling his disciples with an inflexible 
will. 

At the first "Conversation between 
the preachers" in this country, June, 
1773, "the following query was pro- 
posed to every preacher: 

"Ought not the authority of Mr. 

AVesley . . . to extend to the 

preachers and people in America, as 

well as in Great Britain and Ireland? 

"Answer: Yes." 

That fixed the status of laymen in 
the Church in this country, Constitu- 
tion of the United States or no Consti- 
tution of the United States. "We have 
already seen our Methodist Hilde- 
brand's idea of the laity; and without 
argument or elaboration we know 
what to expect. The expected hap- 
pened. The laity were cut out com- 
73 



THE LAYMAN 

pletely from the government and gen- 
eral lousiness of the Church. But 
from the standpoint of American 
ideas, the expected again happened. 
The scheme taken over from Mr. Wes- 
ley broke down. It was absolutely 
impossible for a form of government 
so un-American as the hierarchical 
theory of Mr. Wesley to continue in 
this Eepublic. It gave way — at least 
in part. 

Early in the last century, as early 
as 1821, a monthly periodical, the 
Wesleyan Repository, was founded to 
advocate the admission of laymen to 
religious assemblies. In 1S24 the 
paper was moved to Baltimore and 
merged with another periodical, Mu- 
tual Rights. Immediately the feeling 
became very bitter. "We do not enjoy 
74 



EXTEAXCE OF THE LAITY 

reading the histories of those times. 
Ministers were expelled or made so 
uncomfortable that they withdrew. 
Indeed the bitterness became so in- 
tense that when a candidate for ad- 
mission to the Philadelphia Confer- 
ence was being considered, a leading 
member of the Conference arose and 
said: "Mr. President, I am opposed 
to the admission of this brother ; I am 
told that he is a lay delegation man, 
and I had as lief travel with the devil 
as with a lay delegation man." Such 
sentiments on the part of the ministry 
subsided, however, long ago. 

In 1840 memorials came to the Gen- 
eral Conference asking for lay repre- 
sentation. The body made short 
shrift of them; they voted that the 
agitation was directed by "some sin- 
75 



THE LAYMAN 

gie intellect" and that there was no 
"dissatisfaction" in the Church with 
the existing status. 

In 1844 came the disruption of the 
Church; in 1848 the rehabilitation of 
the Church after the Southern Ex- 
odus. 

In 1852 there was a lay convention 
in favor and another lay convention 
in opposition to the cause. The Gen- 
eral Conference that year declared 
the matter "inexpedient." In 1856 
the same attitude was resumed. 

In 1860 for the first time a stand- 
ing committee was raised. During 
that quadrennium a resolution was 
sent through the Annual Conferences 
to test their attitude. It was snowed 
under. Nearly a hundred and fifty 
Quarterly Conferences voted on the 
proposition, but here the laity were 
76 



ENTRANCE OF THE LAITY 

about evenly divided. But the acorn 
was now in the soil ; the oak was now 
inevitable. The General Conference 
took formal action directing that the 
Annual Conferences should provide 
for a referendum vote of the laymen 
during the year 1861. The General 
Conference adopted the report pre- 
sented by Davis W. Clark and sec- 
onded by Morris D'C Crawford that 
the "General Conference . . . ap- 
prove of the introduction of lay rep- 
resentation into this body when it 
shall be ascertained that the Church 
desires it." When the vote of the 
laity was tabulated it was found, 
strangely enough, that it stood 47,885 
against, to 28,884 for. 

This brings up the fact which 
should always be had in memory, that 
the champions for lay representation 
77 



THE LAYMAN 

were generally among the ministry, 
whilst the greatest antagonists were 
laymen. The greatest antagonist of 
all was the layman Dr. Thomas E. 
Bond, twice editor of The Christian 
Advocate, who held that a divine right 
of government inhered in the minis- 
try — a doctrine we have analyzed 
above. 

It was at this time that a leader 
entered the lists, one blast upon whose 
trumpet was worth a thousand men, 
Bishop Matthew Simpson. We have 
already quoted from him. On that 
occasion (May 13, 1863) he said: 

' ' Had I my brethren of the ministry 
here to-day, as I have taken the lib- 
erty to counsel you on the one hand, 
I would counsel them on the other. I 
would say to them, Why intimate that 
there is any danger to arise from in- 
78 



EXTEAXCE OF THE LAITY 

troducing the laity into the general 
council of the Church? Why is it? 
Is it because the laity have not wis- 
dom enough to plan general meas- 
ures? That can not be. Is it because 
the laity do not love the Church? TVe 
were all laymen once. I know I loved 
the Church just as dearly before she 
set me apart for her ministry as I 
ever have since, and I believe our lay 
brethren love the Church. Is it said 
that our itinerancy is in danger, or 
anything else in dancer from them? 
"Why so ? How have they learned their 
attachment to Methodism? It was 
through the influence of gospel teach- 
ings. TVhat a eoniruentary will it be 
upon our labors, if, after one hundred 
years of toil in this country, we have 
not been able to gather a laity to- 
gether who love the economy of our 
Church! It seems to me it would be 
a reproach upon our labors to say so.'* 

79 



THE LAYMAN 

In that same address Bishop Simp- 
son called attention to a situation in 
Methodism which seemed to him so 
grave that he laid the utmost stress 
upon it. As the reader pursues the 
bishop's thought he can but project 
before his mind the situation in our 
own Church at this moment ; because, 
in fact, what are the lay associations 
which are organized in so many Con- 
ferences but a form of authorized con- 
vention? Bishop Simpson said: 

" There is another reason why I 
favor lay representation that may 
seem a little novel at first to you. It 
is this — I favor lay representation be- 
cause I am opposed to conventions. 
It has been said that conventions are 
dangerous. I admit their danger. 
There is danger in all irregular ac- 
tion. There are sometimes words ut- 
tered and there may be acts performed 
80 



ENTEANCE OF THE LAITY 

that are not in harmony precisely with. 
the spirit of our institutions. But how 
are they to be prevented? May I ask 
these, my brethren, and through 
them, friends who possibly may hear, 
has it occurred to you there never has 
been a call, so far as I know, for a 
convention of the people of the Prot- 
estant Episcopal Church? I have 
never heard of a call for a convention 
of Baptist laymen in this country. I 
have never heard of the calling of a 
convention of Presbyterian laymen in 
this country; I have never heard of 
the calling of a convention of laymen 
in any Church that I know of in the 
United States except in the Methodist 
Church. But we have had our conven- 
tions — we have had them from the be- 
ginning of the century every now and 
then. Conventions in the days of rad- 
icalism, conventions in the days of 
'Scottism' (I use the expression 
simply as expressive), conventions of 
6 81 



THE LAYMAN 

anti-slavery men, conventions of this 
and that form. Why is it? Simply, 
as I understand it, because there is no 
other way in which the laymen can 
give expression to their views. [Ap- 
plause.] Why is it that other Prot- 
estant Churches have not had these 
conventions ? They have laymen asso- 
ciated in council with the ministry, 
and they can express their views so 
that there is no need of their going 
outside to do so, and they do not go 
outside. But when an excitement 
arises and a question comes up in our 
Church, either the laymen must keep 
silence or they must go outside to dis- 
cuss it. So long as the present order 
of things continues we are perpetuat- 
ing conventions in the Church. And 
instead of being opposed to conven- 
tions, by opposing lay delegation, I 
think I destroy the necessity of con- 
ventions altogether by saying to the 
laymen, 'Come inside and counsel with 

82 



ENTRANCE OF THE LAITY 

us, and let us act together and not 
separately/ " [Applause.] 

We do not believe we can do the 
cause of lay participation in the An- 
nual Conference business a greater 
service than to print the closing para- 
graphs of Bishop Simpson's address. 
The congregation was spellbound. 
The speaker seemed oppressed by the 
sense of what the hour might mean. 
He was oppressed also with the weight 
of his own belief in lay participation 
in the business of the Church. He ex- 
claimed : 

" Allow me a word or two person- 
ally. I had thought upon this subject 
for years; I had looked over it until 
my mind was satisfied, and I expressed 
it to my most intimate friends that lay 
representation was the greatest want 
of the Church. As you know, I went 

83 



THE LAYMAN 

abroad a few years ago, and was 
taken ill. I doubted whether I should 
get home. I reached my home, how- 
ever, and lay sick for a length of time, 
on a bed from which my friends 
thought I would never rise. I looked 
over the Church. I determined, God 
helping me, if I had strength enough 
before the dying moment came to is- 
sue an address to the Church on this 
question of lay representation. I 
went so far as to prepare the outlines 
of it, designing to have it filled up 
while I had sufficient strength. God 
was pleased in His mercy to spare me 
a little longer to my family. I was 
raised again from my bed of sickness. 
I laid the matter aside, waiting until 
in the providence of God there should 
be occasion for it, and I said no more. 
I crossed the Eocky Mountains last 
summer, after having had a very sud- 
den and severe attack, which my 
friends feared would terminate my 
84 



ENTRANCE OF THE LAITY 

usefulness and active labor. I found 
myself in traveling exposed to danger 
and disease, and I knew not whether 
I should return or not. "While on that 
Pacific Coast, I resolved to send back 
to the Church papers of our denomi- 
nation the declaration that I believed 
that lay representation was needed 
for the benefit of our Church. [Ap- 
plause.] 

"I did it, sir, for the purpose of 
putting myself on the record, and if I 
had aught of influence among my 
friends, to say to them, if I never 
should have a chance of speaking to 
them personally again, 'If you wish 
for the unity, the prosperity, and the 
perpetuity of our Church, admit lay 
representation. ' Well, sir, I am here 
among you, spared, in the providence 
of God, to labor a little longer, with 
health in which I am able to do some- 
thing more for the Church, whether it 
shall please the Church to keep me 
85 



THE LAYMAN 

where I am or to use me in any other 
way. In my youth I gave myself to 
that Church in a covenant never to be 
forgotten. God helping me, I shall 
live for that Church, and tell it what 
I think best for it, according to the 
light given to me, as long as God lets 
me live." [Amen.] 

This was in 1863. The General 
Conference of the following year 
passed this: 

"Resolved, That while we reaffirm 
our approval of lay representation in 
the General Conference, whenever it 
shall be ascertained that the Church 
desires it, we see no such declaration 
of the popular will as to justify us in 
taking advanced action in relation to 
it." ' 

In 1868 a laymen's convention was 
held in Chicago, seat of the General 
Conference of that year. The con- 
S6 






EXTEAXCE OF THE LAITY 

vention prepared a memorial, which 
was signed by General Clinton B. 
Fisk, chairman; Governor John 
Evans, Colorado; Isaac Rich, Wil- 
liam Claflin, Franklin Rand, Boston; 
Oliver Hoyt, Stamford, Conn.; Lem- 
uel Bangs, New York; Amos Shinkle, 
Covington, and thirty others. It con- 
tained this language to the General 
Conference : 

"You dispose absolutely of all do- 
nations, bequests, and grants made 
for benevolent purposes to the Church, 
Your trustees merelv holding such 
property subject to your order. This 
General Conference is, therefore, sole 
legatee and grantee in all such cases. 
You can also exercise discretion as to 
the length of the pastoral term. . . . 
You require of us a pledge to support 
the ministry, by which is, of course, 
meant the pastors duly appointed. In 
87 



THE LAYMAN 

all this the laity is merely passive. 
Does it not appear to you that a Gen- 
eral Conference making such require- 
ments of and laying such commands 
upon the laity should be composed in 
part of lay delegates? The exercise 
of such large power is, no doubt, neces- 
sary; but it would come more appro- 
priately from a General Conference 
in which the ministry and laity are 
jointly represented." 

The General Conference of 1868 
voted to submit the question both to 
the Annual Conferences and to the 
adult lay membership of the connex- 
ion; the vote of the General Confer- 
ence was 227 for, to 3 against, lay 
delegation. The vote in the Confer- 
ences was far more favorable than 
among the laymen themselves. It was 
the strong ministerial vote in favor 
that carried the day. The Western 
88 



ENTRANCE OF THE LAITY 

Christian Advocate under John M. 
Keid, the Northwestern under Thomas 
M. Eddy, Z ion's Herald under Gilbert 
Haven, and especially The Methodist, 
edited by the mighty George B. 
Crooks, spoke in ringing words for 
the reform. Two hundred and fifty 
thousand tracts were distributed on 
the eve of the popular vote. Bishop 
Simpson wrote with a prophet's 
vision to Bishop Ames: 

"I feel an intense interest in the 
subject, growing out of the attitude of 
the Church South. If we are to have 
a union with other Methodist bodies, 
it can only be on the basis of admit- 
ting the lay element as they all have 
it." 

Prophetic words. It may be worth 
while to keep them in mind. 
Between 1868 and 1872 the Church 
89 






THE LAYMAN 

changed front. Up to and into the 
General Conference in 1872 the lay- 
men made their appearance ; they were 
brought in by the preponderating 
favorable vote of the ministry: they 
quietly took their seats by their min- 
isterial brethren: and, as Dr. Crooks, 
in his "Life of Bishop Simpson/ 9 ob- 
serves, "the heavens did not fall." 



90 



CHAPTER VI 

WHAT IS THE ANNUAL CON- 
FERENCE? 

This writer may be permitted to say 
that in the scores of communications 
of various kinds which have come to 
him from pastors upon this subject 
during recent months, scarcely any 
minister has based the exclusion of 
the laity from the Annual Conference 
upon any theory of the divine right of 
the clergy to govern. As a matter of 
fact, that objection is negligible. Nor 
have there been any more than three 
or four who have found their ground 
for such exclusion in the fact that it 
is a surrender of power on the part 
of the ministry. That is not an im- 
pediment. It goes deeper. 
91 



THE LAYMAN 

The objection to laymen in the An- 
nual Conference is of another char- 
acter. It is said that the Annual Con- 
ference is not a legislative body; it 
is not endowed with the right to make 
laws ; it is not a court to pass on the 
validity of legislation. Its functions 
are simply to hear the reports of the 
ministers, pass upon the qualifications 
of candidates for the ministry, con- 
duct the examinations of the various 
classes of young ministers on their 
way through their studies, hear the re- 
ports of the Conference stewards on 
necessitous cases, conduct the services 
of ordination, hear sundry reports, 
get the appointments, and depart for 
the year's work in the itinerancy. 
This routine, we are told, is minis- 
terial in its essence ; it does not con- 
cern the laity; it has no legislation; 
92 



THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

and therefore it could not and would 
not interest laymen if they were 
legally admitted to membership. It 
would be dull to them. They would 
not attend. It would be a waste of 
energy, and would accomplish noth- 
ing. 

For it is not to be expected that 
laymen would take any part in matters 
involving ministerial relations. 

In a large degree this is both true 
and just. The picture is correct. But : 
it is not complete. 

'What to-day is an Annual Confer- 
ence! Is it simply a mechanical rou- 
tine of a given number of ecclesiastical 
inquisitions : Who are admitted on 
trial? Who are in studies of the third 
year? Who are the superannuates? 
"Who have been received by transfer? 
Who have been located at their own 
93 



THE LAYMAN 

request? TVTio have been received on 
credentials? etc. 

If it be answered that this is all 
there is to an Annual Conference, 
the instant reply is, Is this all there 
ought to be to an Annual Confer- 
ence? For the Methodist Episcopal 
Church in its annual gatherings for 
conference — the Methodist Episcopal 
Church representing in fact and by 
affiliation ten million people in this 
land — is it enough, is it all that is 
required, that a class in the Church 
shall meet, ask those questions, and 
adjourn? Are there no real prob- 
lems that the Methodist Episcopal 
Church as a Church, ministers and 
laymen counseling together, ought to 
"confer" upon? Is the Church as 
such to stand aloof from such ques- 
94 



THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

tions as temperance, education, for- 
eign missions, the rural Church, hos- 
pitals, "social service," Church and 
other literature, the race problem, the 
place of the child, the Sunday school, 
the peril of immigration, the conquest 
of the frontier, Mormonism, Sabbath 
observance, child labor, our colleges, 
divorce, cities, and a score of other 
burning questions which are agitating 
and ought to agitate all Churches to- 
day? Suppose we wish to get the 
ministers and laymen together for a 
"conference" say on the stupendous 
task of foreign missions — how do we 
do it? Do we not have to organize 
a convention? Really, has not the 
Methodist Church rather gone to seed 
on conventions? Can we keep the 
big convention plan of touching the 
95 



THE LAYMAN 

Church, up indefinitely? The fact is, 
the program of conventions is pretty 
nearly ready for its epitaph. 

"When we compute our millions in 
membership, when we compute also 
our per capita gifts to the Church's 
interests, and our conditions in the 
great cities, in brief the status of the 
Church, is it not permissible and even 
urgent to ask the Methodist Episcopal 
Church if she is satisfied with the re- 
turns on her assets, if she thinks she 
is getting enough out of her members 
and the investment of her capital? 
It is our belief that the defects, the 
lack of interest, the lack of actual or- 
ganization, the lack of returns, might 
in good measure be obviated if all 
the hundred Annual Conferences 
throughout this land were yearly con- 
ferences of the Church, instead of a 
96 



THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

somewhat repetitious and formal con- 
ference of a class in the Church. The 
ministry is not all the Church. It is 
the glory of the Church. It has and 
still will have the great prophetic 
leadership of the Church. Nothing 
but suicide can ever take away that 
crown. But the laity, too, are the 
Church. They have their priesthood, 
their place in God's plan, not as slaves, 
not as subjects, but as the common 
children, partners, fellow workers and 
"fellow gladiators," as the apostle 
phrased it, with a divided responsi- 
bility, in the one Body of Christ. 
There can be no difference of opinion 
as to the principles here stated, al- 
though there may still remain a doubt 
as to the plan of the layman in the 
"Conference." 
As a matter of fact, have we de- 
7 97 



THE LAYMAN 

scribed the Annual Conference cor- 
rectly in confining it to tlie thirty- 
questions in the Discipline ? Here we 
make an appeal to fact. The Rock 
Eiver Conference Journal for 1911 lies 
before us. Forty-eight pages of the 
Journal are given to reports of Com- 
mittees on: 

Jails and Prisons, 
Marriage and Divorce, 
Old People's Home, 
Conference Deaconess Work, 
Periodicals, 
Sabbath Observance, 
Foreign Missions, 
Northwestern University, 
Superannuates' Relief, 
Social Service, 
Civil and Religious Liberty, 
Epworth League, 
Wesley Hospital, 
Temperance, 

98 



THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

The Bible Cause, 
Garrett Biblical Institute, 
Chicago Training School, 
Education, 

Woman's Foreign Missions, 
"Woman's Home Missions, 
Chicago Missions, 
Freedmen's Schools, 
Domestic Missions, 
Bomanism. 

The Illinois Conference Journal 
shows practically the same list, but 
adds a thoroughgoing report on Evan- 
gelism, History Illinois Methodism, 
Mattoon Memorial Hospital, "White 
Slave Traffic, Methodist Students in 
State Universities, and almost over- 
shadowing all, the launching of a 
campaign for $1,250,000 for the five 
educational institutions within her 
borders. Both of these citations are 
99 



THE LAYMAN 

merely examples ; they are not excep- 
tional. 

Are not these vast questions a part 
of the Annual Conference? Have not 
the preachers "conferred" upon them 
as well as on the thirty questions in 
the Discipline? The fact is, the An- 
nual Conference of to-day consists of 
two functions : first, the asking of the 
Disciplinary questions; second, the 
consideration of whatever subject is 
of such a character as to deserve the 
attention and deliverance of a great 
Christian society. 

It is not a correct report of exist- 
ing conditions to say that the Annual 
Conference convenes simply to ask 
and answer the ancient routine of the 
Discipline. The question is of whom 
shall these other questions be asked? 
Who shall declare the attitude of the 
100 



THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

people on all the questions enumerated 
above? Is that function to be in- 
vested wholly and alone in the clergy ? 
A moment's reflection will show that 
that is unwise and that it is impos- 
sible. The framing of resolutions on 
temperance, on divorce, on the white 
slave traffic, are intended to voice the 
attitude of the Church, not of the 
clergy simply; and as such they are 
in fact legislation, whatever we may 
say to avoid the word. And the fact 
that laymen have been admitted to 
the supreme legislative body of the 
Church carries with it the implica- 
tion that, if the Annual Conference is 
to assume to discuss and vote upon 
resolutions in the nature of defining 
the attitude of the Conference — the 
Churches and the people in them — 
on any question, the laity should par- 
101 



THE LAYMAN 

ticipate in the voting which makes the 
resolution obligatory. 

It does not end here. May we be 
permitted to use a concrete illustra- 
tion? At a Woman's Foreign Mis- 
sionary Anniversary within the year, 
Mrs. Bishop Bashford was present 
and made a thrilling address. Really, 
was not that a part of the Conference 
in its wider horizons and inclusions? 
Or if it was not, in reality ought not 
that momentous afternoon to have 
been considered one element, one par- 
agraph in the vast story of the week? 
In fact, are not the Conference anni- 
versaries a part of the week, a part 
of the Conference purpose? If they 
are not, if only the inquisitions of the 
Disciplinary routine are the Confer- 
ence and the rest are the camp fol- 
lowers and outside though related at- 
102 






THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

tractions, must it not be said that in 
some particulars at least, the side 
shows are more memorable, if not 
more vital, than the main tent? 

Our theory of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church is that of a vast or- 
ganism, millions strong, rich, poor, 
learned, unlearned, patriots, neigh- 
bors, Christians, going its way across 
the years, mighty because it is conse- 
crated, alive to the mother land and 
to lands across the seas, conceiving 
of humanity as a brotherhood, and 
opening its eyes to how vast is its 
opportunity and its responsibility, and 
then getting together in its hundred 
groups throughout the mother land, 
and having a "Conference" on how 
that opportunity may be thoroughly 
realized and that responsibility actu- 
ally and faithfully met. On such a 
103 



THE LAYMAN 

theory the coming together of a small 
fraction of the Church and that frac- 
tion a distinct class, no matter how 
consecrated or how high its character, 
is simply, in the nature of the case, 
not sufficient. 

Our theory of the Annual Confer- 
ence is that once a year the Church 
should confer, ministers and laymen, 
together on the issues that the Church 
should confer upon. "We beg to sub- 
mit the question: Is it not possible 
that it would be profitable to the King- 
dom of God? 



104 



CHAPTER VII 

AT THE SEAT OF CONFERENCE 

Laymen are seeking avenues for self- 
expression. In all denominations they 
are astir. They are not content to he 
a religions monad; they Trill not live 
the unrelated and somnolescent life. 
The whole world is a complex of con- 
nections, piece work, in which all for 
each and each for all is now the eco- 
nomic and political and religions ideal. 
The laymen are swept together in the 
vital currents of the times. 

Every great outburst of religious 
power has been accompanied by the 
fresh outburst of lay energy. All re- 
vivals are marked with Pentecosts 
105 



THE LAYMAN 

poured upon the laity. "We would ex- 
pect it to be so, we who believe in the 
priesthood of the laity: and so the his- 
torian finds it to be. In the day of 
the apostles it was so: this needs no 
citation of proof: the "company" 
"were all filled with the Holy Ghost, 
and they spake the "Word of God with 
boldness. And the multitude of them 
that believed were of one heart and 
soul — " one in the energizing impulse 
of the Spirit, given according to his 
measure to each disciple. 

The experience of Christendom has 
repeatedly reiterated the proposition : 
the outburst at the rise of Monasti- 
oisin. the outburst during the life of 
Francis of Asissi. are types of that 
outburst of lay activity which, for ex- 
ample, burst through the conventional 
restraints of the Church, when, cen- 
106 



AT SEAT OF CONFERENCE 

turies later. Wesley and Whitefield 

preached from Cornwall to the Tyne. 

It is one of the heartening signs of 
a spiritual revival that the laity in 
our day are seeking to express them- 
selves for Christ. Xor are they seek- 
ing new maehineiy. It will be ob- 
served that neither the Laymen and 
Eeligion Movement nor the Laymen's 
Missionary Movement wish to create 
any new societies. They expressly 
state as much. They are not a new 
machine; they are a movement. Is 
it not a good sign? It is a proof that 
the Son is in the midst of His brethren 
and that they hear His voice. 

If illustrations were needed of this, 
it would only be necessary to trace 
the origin and growth of what has 
been called "The Up rising of Men for 
"World Conquest," the beginning and 
107 



THE LAYMAN 

progress of the Laymen's Missionary 
Movement, or that uprising of men 
for Christian work in America — the 
Men and Religion Movement. These 
activities may have been too opti- 
mistic ; they may be open to a certain 
amount of candid criticism; but a 
reading of the names of the per- 
sons connected with them, men usually 
supposed to be buried under their 
secularities, professional men, poli- 
ticians, scholars, business men, shows 
how there is an increasing company 
of laymen who are seeking to ex- 
press themselves for Christ, making it 
now a part of their life creed to work 
in the Church, for the Church, with 
the Church, if only they may find the 
open door. Whatever may be said in 
criticism of any phase, or any person, 
or of any lack of response in any 
108 



AT SEAT OF CONFEBENCE 

quarter, it remains that these are 
spiritual phenomena ; and they are 
heartening signs of the times. 

This movement is visible in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church. There 
is a desire on the part of the laity for 
a larger work in the Church. In the 
nature of things this can not be satis- 
fied, and ought not to be satisfied with 
lay membership in the General Con- 
ference. General Conference comes 
but once in four years. And there is 
a maximum of only four hundred out 
of three and a half million laymen pos- 
sible in that body. It is impossible 
that eligibility merely to membership 
(there is practically no chance of ac- 
tual membership) in a quadrennial 
body can, or ought to, satisfy any 
genuine desire to participate in the 
large work of the Church. In conse- 
109 



THE LAYMAN 

quence of this feeling, a few years ago 
laymen's associations began to spring 
up. These associations generally met 
at the seat of the Annual Conference, 
and whilst it was in session. The Lay 
Electoral Conferences, meeting once 
in four years, passed resolutions fa- 
voring such associations. The Lay- 
men's Association of the Holston Con- 
ference is the type of what was the 
goal of these associations. This group 
of laymen in Tennessee organized with 
the intention of seeing to it that every 
benevolent apportionment in every 
charge was met in full, and that every 
pastor's "salary" was paid in full. 
It also undertook to assist in financing 
the official institution of learning, now 
the University of Chattanooga, and 
this also it did. The Laymen's Asso- 
ciations of the South Kansas, Illinois, 
110 



AT SEAT OF CONFERENCE 

Colorado, Rock River, Troy, Califor- 
nia, Northwest Iowa, Newark, Detroit 
Conferences were early in the lists 
and have become a power. The Gen- 
eral Conference of 1908, in Baltimore, 
took this action: 

Laymen's Associations 

H 88. There may be assembled at 
the seat of the Annual Conference 
a Laymen's Association organized 
within the bounds of the Conference, 
composed of delegates selected from 
the charges in such manner as the 
Laymen's Association may determine. 
The purpose of such Association shall 
be to advance the local and Confer- 
ence interests of the Church and to 
enlist all laymen in the general ac- 
tivities of the denomination. 

The year before the General Con- 
ference gave this sanction there were 
111 



THE LAYMAN 

already twenty-nine such associations, 
the year following the granting of 
the sanction the number increased to 
forty-eight; in 1911 the number re- 
ported was fifty-five. 

"What does this mean? It can only 
mean that the laity of fifty-five Con- 
ferences are on record as having 
found in themselves a will to meet and 
consult and work for the large inter- 
ests of the Kingdom. And these ac- 
tual figures are but symptomatic of 
the rising tides of responsibility and 
devotion passing over the laymen of 
the age. They want something be- 
yond perfunctory Church membership, 
indolence, dress parade, taking the col- 
lection, drawing checks. They want 
to know; they want to get into the 
game; they want a place to work. 
Methodist laymen are like the laymen 
112 



AT SEAT OF CONFERENCE 

of other denominations. They are 
units in the age movement. 

Observe: the Lay Associations 
meet at the seat of the Annual Con- 
ference. What can it but mean in 
the inevitable to-morrow to have the 
laymen meeting in a borrowed church 
at the seat of the Conference, where 
the business of the Church is at- 
tended to, and they who pay the bills 
kept out? Can any person discern 
the signs of the times abroad in the 
skies and not recognize what it will 
mean? The Master taught us that 
certain signs foretold fair weather and 
that certain signs foretold storms. 
Go out, thou sleeper, and study the 
signs in the sky. 

The Lay Associations, what are 
they? They are a convention. The 
Annual Conference alone has power. 
8 113 



THE LAYMAN 

The Lay Association is the formal 
register on the part of the laity that 
it wishes, loyally, to take a part in 
the business of making the Church 
a power. It is, then, a sort of half- 
way house on a district road to a fixed 
goal. It is a vestibule, as it were, 
just outside the Annual Conference. 
Do you expect the kind of men who 
are working in the Laymen's Associ- 
ations to be permanently satisfied with 
the vestibule? Ought they to be satis- 
fied with the vestibule? Is it Scrip- 
tural that they should be permanently 
thus satisfied? Is it best for the 
Church? 

Compare what is going on in the 
Annual Conference with what is going 
on at the same moment in the Lay- 
men's Association in some borrowed 
church: when looked at from the 
114 



AT SEAT OF CONFEEENCE 

standpoint of prestige, subjects, pow- 
ers, it can excite only sorrow and pain. 
The contrast is abysmal. 

What contact have the laity coming 
to the Laymen's Association with the 
Annual Conference? Quite likely at 
a given hour the pews in the middle 
of the church will be cleared and a 
committee of preachers will pilot the 
laymen down the aisles to the vacated 
seats. One of the laymen will then 
deliver a probably extemporaneous 
talk, sincere but probably superficial, 
because of no specific preparation, 
loyal at heart but groping in thought, 
well received because well meant. The 
bishop replies, heartily, sincerely, not 
forgetting in all probability the op- 
portunity to lecture the laity a little. 
It is over; the solemn procession is 
re-formed. It marches out. The 
115 



THE LAYMAN 

preachers again fill the pews and the 
business begins again. The laymen 
march off to the church loaned from 
the Baptists or Presbyterians, albeit 
some may linger in the vestibule, out- 
siders in the Father's house. 

Is that for the best interests of the 
Kingdom? Those laymen ought to be 
in that board of directors. They 
ought to speak from the inside. 

Will it not come to pass one day that 
in some form or other, with some 
rights or responsibilities the laity who 
form the bone and sinew of the King- 
dom, whom faithful pastors have in- 
spired, who are students of our life 
and will become students of our vast 
economies and enterprises, will be per- 
mitted, yea, will be invited, to sit in 
the Father's house and confer about 
the Father's business? Alone we 
116 



AT SEAT OF CONFERENCE 

stand among the Caucasian Meth- 
odisms of earth in denying the mil- 
lions of our laity a seat beside their 
pastors in the larger plans for the 
Kingdom for that inevitable to-mor- 
row that seems so near at hand. The 
pressure of Providence is against that 
barred door. The laymen in all de- 
nominations are astir. It is a sign 
of the times. It is impossible for the 
Methodist Episcopal Church perma- 
nently to remain in this particular so 
far behind all the other bodies of 
Protestant Christendom. 



117 



CHAPTEE VIII 

WHERE LAYMEN PAETICIPATE 

The experience of others is the com- 
pass by which the wise man sails. 

It is of importance that in this pend- 
ing reform in our polity we should ask 
if there are any other branches of the 
Methodist family which possess lay 
participation, in the Annual Confer- 
ence, and, if so, what the experience of 
those bodies has been. 

In the following bodies laymen are 
members of the Annual Conference: 

Methodist Episcopal, South. 
Methodist Chukch of Canada, 
Methodist Peotestant, 
AVesleyan Methodist (Great Brit- 
ain), 

118 



WHERE LAYMEN PARTICIPATE 

Primitive Methodist (Great Britain), 

United Methodist (Great Britain), 

Irish Methodist, 

Independent Methodist (Great Brit- 
ain), 

South African Methodist, 

Australian Methodist, 

Wesleyan Methodist Connection, 

Free Methodist, 

French Methodist, 

Congregational Methodist, 

Wesleyan Reform Union (Great 
Britain). 

The following body does not permit 
lay participation in the Annual Con- 
ference : 

Methodist Episcopal Church. 

It would seem important to inquire 
concerning the»results of this lay par- 
ticipation. Accordingly a letter was 
addressed to high sources of authority 
119 



THE LAYMAN 

asking for confidential information; 
the letter was addressed to bishops, 
college presidents, secretaries, edi- 
tors, distinguished members of the 
bar, all of them men who have trav- 
eled through the world and studied all 
the phases of this particular subject, 
whose position gives them a detached 
viewpoint, and who have written un- 
der circumstances so guarded that 
they could speak without restraint. 
The letter solicited information as to 
these points: (1) Has lay membership 
in the Annual Conference really bene- 
fited the Church in particular and as 
a whole? (2) Has it tended to create 
"bossism" on the part of the laity? 
(3) If the question were submitted to 
the Church to-day, would the Church 
rescind its former action and in the 
best interest of the Church withdraw 
120 



WHERE LAYMEN PARTICIPATE 

the laity from the Conference? En- 
quiry was made of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, South, the Metho- 
dist Protestant Church, the Methodist 
Church of Canada, the Wesleyan 
Methodist Church (of Great Britain), 
the Irish Methodist Church, the Meth- 
odist bodies in Australia, South Af- 
rica, France. 

The following replies are types of 
all the letters we received : 

The Methodist Episcop.il Church, 
South. 

In the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, the status of the laity in the 
Annual Conference is precisely this: 

1. Laymen were admitted in 1866 
by action of the General Conference 
of that year, which was duly con- 
firmed by the Annual Conferences im- 
121 



THE LAYMAN 

mediately following, as a constitu- 
tional question was involved. 

2. Very slight change lias been 
made in the language of the original 
action, which read, "one-fourth of 
whom may be local preachers/' and 
which was substituted in 1878 by — 
' ' Of the lay members from an Annual 
Conference, one may be a local 
preacher." 

3. In 1870 it was provided that the 
lay delegates to an Annual Confer- 
ence (always four from each presid- 
ing elder's district) should be " chosen 
by the District Conferences," while in 
1866 the original provision was that 
the four should be "chosen annually 
by the district stewards, or in such 
other way as the Annual Conference 
may direct." In 1870 the provision 
was inserted concerning choosing lay 
delegates to an Annual Conference, 
that they should choose only such as 
were twenty-five years of age at least, 

122 



WHERE LAYMEN PARTICIPATE 

and had been for six years next pre- 
ceding his election a member of the 
Church. This was later changed to 
' 'our Church." 

Replies. 

I do not suppose that there is a man 
among us who would even think of 
doing away with it. It is possible that 
in some instances the delegates have 
made an improper use of their posi- 
tion. If so, however, I am not aware 
of the fact. On the contrary, they 
have been a great addition to the life 
and working efficiency of the Confer- 
ences. The fellowship between them 
and the ministers has been increas- 
ingly free and affectionate. All the 
indications are that the next move- 
ment among us will be in the direction 
of equal representation. At the pres- 
ent, as you are doubtless aware, there 
are only four delegates from each dis- 
trict. 

123 



THE LAYMAN 

Apart from all questions of expedi- 
ency, we are thoroughly convinced 
from the study of the Scriptures that 
laymen have a fundamental right to a 
full share in the government and ad- 
ministration of the Church. Any 
other view seems to us to have in it 
at least a lingering remnant of medi- 
evalism. — Alpha. 

The policy of lay representation in 
the Annual and the General Confer- 
ence of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, South, has worked so well 
from the very beginning that it would 
be impossible to work up among us a 
discussion of the question. 

Lay representation, in supplying a 
certain element in a Church which 
leans to militarism, promotes a demo- 
cratic unity which binds the laity 
in feeling and action more closely 
and sympathetically to our Confer- 
ences. 

124 



WHERE LAYMEN PARTICIPATE 

Lay representation acts as a bal- 
ance-wheel to a legislative machinery 
which may develop a practical speed 
too great for safety. In other words, 
the layman is a check against bossism 
and that "pernicious activity" which 
may obtain even among the saints. 
The clerical and lay elements act as 
counter-checks. 

Lay representation gives to the 
clerical element the advantages of that 
broad, practical business influence 
which comes from the layman's world. 
The value of the layman as a member 
of the various Conference boards is 
very manifest. 

The presence of the layman in our 
Conferences adds interest and useful- 
ness to the sessions. 

Xo ; we have become so accustomed 
to the layman as a valued factor in 
our Conference work that we do not 
see how we could very well afford to 
be without him. — Beta. 

125 



THE LAYMAN 

The presence of laymen in our 
Annual Conferences is a positive re- 
straint upon both, politics and boss- 
ism, whether of the ministry or of the 
laity itself. The membership of lay- 
men in our Annual Conferences I be- 
lieve to be of much benefit (1) in re- 
ceiving their co-operation along the 
business and financial lines of the 
local Church. (2) In sharing with 
them the responsibility of the ap- 
pointments by having them on the 
ground and in frank conference with 
bishop and cabinet. (3) In breaking 
down the ecclesiastical bars and tradi- 
tions of separateness that came in 
with Anglican ministerial caste from 
the days of Wesley. 

I doubt if you can find a body of 
laymen in all Methodism more inter- 
ested than ours in the work of the 
Church locally and conneetionally, or 
more helpful to their pastors. I think 
such loyalty dates back to the past 

126 



WHERE LAYMEN PARTICIPATE 

and confidence expressed in them by 
the act of full and free admission to 
all our councils. — Gamma. 

1. It gives the Conference the ben- 
efit of the point of view of the class 
of people who constitute the mass of 
Church membership. 

2. It gives the advantage of the 
business methods, habits, and experi- 
ence of the men whose business is 
business. This is no small advantage. 
It keeps the preacher from onesided- 
ness and narrowness. 

3. It reacts on the laymen to their 
advantage to be trusted in the privi- 
lege of participating in the business 
of the Church as represented in an 
Annual Conference, and tends to 
make them take more interest in the 
Church and to be better men. 

4. It increases the respect of the 
preachers for their lay brethren and 
the lay people to find them as inter- 

127 



THE LAYMAN 

ested in the broader -work of the whole 
Conference and the whole Church as 
themselves and as competent to par- 
ticipate in it, and thus gives them an 
added motive for doing their best 
work for their people. — Delta. 

Thus far our experience with the 
laymen has been entirely satisfactory. 
I know of no "bossism" or "ecclesi- 
astical politics" among them. Their 
presence has been a "distinct and defi- 
nite advantage." 

The grounds of my belief in their 
membership in the Annual Confer- 
ence are (1) the general view of the 
"priesthood" of all believers; (2) the 
growing interest among the laymen in 
the life and work of the Church; (3) 
the increasing need of their service 
as the demands upon the Church are 
multiplied and become more urgent. 

These, in brief, are my reasons for 
favoring lay membership in our Con- 
ferences, i — Epsilost. 
128 



WHERE LAYMEN PARTICIPATE 

I feel perfectly sure that it has not 
tended to increase what is called ec- 
clesiastical politics. It encourages, 
on the other hand, a sense of respon- 
sibility on the part of the laymen for 
the things the Annual Conferences 
do, and begets a more intelligent 
spirit of co-operation with the minis- 
ter in his work. The Church exists 
for the layman, and one way of help- 
ing him to forward the general inter- 
ests of the Church is to give him an 
active share in its deliberations. I 
think, moreover, that it can be safely 
said that the lay members do not 
bother the bishops about special ap- 
pointments. — Zeta. 

I speak as a layman. I have never 
known any discord to grow out of lay 
membership in the Annual Confer- 
ence, and I am of the opinion that the 
appointments are more satisfactory 
and the spirit of the bedy and the 

9 129 



THE LAYMAN 

Church, better because of their pres- 
ence. Their presence does not tend to 
increase what is called ecclesiastical 
politics or bossism on the part of the 
laity. I can not say that it is a dis- 
tinct and definite advantage, except 
that perhaps laymen feel that they 
have a right to be heard if they wish 
to be heard, and that tends to make 
them better satisfied. 

But the Annual Conference is a 
ministers' conference and always will 
be, and in my opinion ought to be. It 
is the time when ministerial character 
is investigated, and when their abili- 
ties and adaptabilities for work are 
held in the balance, and determined 
by an arbiter who gives them their 
commission for another year. Under 
the law of our Church a layman can 
not vote on any question involving 
ministerial character, and while that 
is a fact and has been a limitation 
upon my power as a member of the 

130 



WHERE LAYMEN PARTICIPATE 

Annual Conference that I have al- 
ways been alert not to transgress, yet 
it is a limitation that I have never 
known any minister to speak of pub- 
licly in an Annual Conference. By a 
quiet acquiescence, that has been 
thoroughly quiet and that has been al- 
most unobservable, the laymen have 
fallen in agreeably with the accepted 
idea that an Annual Conference is a 
ministers \ conference. There has 
never been any discord or friction of 
any kind, so far as I have known, as 
a result of laymen in Annual Confer- 
ences. The ministers are satisfied, 
and so are the laymen. Their pres- 
ence is often helpful because with us 
the presiding elder is a representative 
both of the Churches and of the min- 
isters, and when he is in doubt about 
an appointment the laymen, officially 
chosen, are on hand to be consulted by 
him, and sometimes the bishop him- 
self sends for one of them and talks 

131 



THE LAYMAN 

over the situation in some town or in 
some district. But to say that there 
is any polities or any bossism on the 
part of the laity is to speak of an im- 
aginary thing, at least of a thing that 
I know nothing about, and have never 
heard such an expression used in one 
of our Conferences. 

In my opinion the laymen's confer- 
ence for our Church is the District 
Conference. I have long contended, 
and am contending more now than 
ever before, that a District Confer- 
ence ought to be made up almost en- 
tirely of laymen, and that they ought 
to be placed in charge of nearly all of 
its deliberations, lead the discussions, 
and make the plans for the work of 
the district, That is their distinct 
body, and in my opinion, as the years 
grow it is going to be more and more 
their Conference. 

Of course, with us the General Con- 
ference is a ministers' and a laymen's 

132 



WHEEE LAYMEN PARTICIPATE 

Conference equally, and it is a very 
rare thing that any one can observe 
the deliberations of a General Confer- 
ence and observe any line of senti- 
ment held by either order that is in 
conflict with the line of sentiment held 
by the other. 

I am inclined to the view that the 
presence of laymen in an Annual Con- 
ference tends to remove friction be- 
tween the two orders and to bring 
about a better feeling of satisfaction 
and acquiescence of the ministers and 
laymen in the appointments and in the 
work done. As I see it, it is largely 
a question of practical administra- 
tion. There is no reason for the min- 
isters to mistrust the laymen, and no 
reason for the laymen to mistrust the 
ministers. If any such a mistrust ex- 
ists, the best way, in my opinion, to 
remove it is simply to put laymen in 
a place where they can be heard, and 
when that is done the ministers will 

133 



THE LAYMAN 

find that the complaints that they now 
think exist will entirely dissipate 
themselves. 

The most valnable work that onr 
laymen render is on committees. On 
the Committee of Education they are 
nearly always the most practical ad- 
visers, and that is true of some other 
committees. I have known many a 
minister who went into a committee 
with certain enthusiastic views that 
was persuaded, after his propositions 
were brought face to face to some 
practical men, that they had a better 
understanding of the real situation 
than he had. — Theta. 

The Methodist Pkotestaett Chukch. 

Eeply. 

The presence of laymen in our An- 
nual Conferences exercises a conserv- 
ative influence on legislation gener- 
ally. I do not believe that it develops 

134 



WHERE LAYMEN PARTICIPATE 

a tendency to ecclesiastical politics or 
"bossisin." The Churches seldom 
send up the same lay representatives 
to the Annual Conferences. Conse- 
quently they do not become suf- 
ficiently familiar with Conference 
business to exert a directing or domi- 
nating influence. On the contrary, 
they act as a sort of balance-wheel to 
check what would seem to them to be 
too radical departure from the estab- 
lished methods of Church work, or too 
excessive domination on the part of 
individual ministerial members of the 
Annual Conference. It is very rarely, 
indeed, that laymen exercise a posi- 
tive and aggressive leadership in Con- 
ference affairs ; ordinarily they do not 
have the opportunity to become suffi- 
ciently versed in the business of the 
Conference to give them the confi- 
dence and self-assurance necessary to 
do this. 
I believe, however, that the pres- 

135 



THE LAYMAN 

ence of the laymen in the Annual Con- 
ference brings a decided advantage to 
the Church. They are thus enabled to 
come into intelligent touch and sym- 
pathy with the work of the Church in 
a way they could not do if they did 
not have the opportunity of sharing in 
Annual Conference legislation. They 
are brought into a position where they 
can co-operate efficiently in carrying 
out plans of Church work. As a mat- 
ter of fact, experience proves that the 
responsibility of leadership in formu- 
lating and in executing plans for the 
development of Church interests gen- 
erally falls upon the ministerial mem- 
bers of the Annual Conference. The 
sound common-sense and clear judg- 
ment of laymen often give a prac- 
tical turn to the plans devised for 
Church work, that might, but for their 
presence, become too theoretical for 
successful results. — Iota. 

136 



WHERE LAYMEN PARTICIPATE 

The Methodist Church of Canada. 

This denomination has had full lay 
representation in all its Conferences, 
General and Annual, as well as in its 
District Meetings and, of course, in 
its Quarterly Official Meetings, since 
the General Union of Methodism in 
1883. 

Replies. 

I think I can say, without any hesi- 
tation, that it has proved a distinct 
and definite advantage to our Church. 

In the first place, it tends to increase 
very largely the interest which our 
leading laymen take in all the affairs 
of the Church, especially in its mis- 
sionary and educational enterprises. 
In the second place, it has introduced 
into all the business of our Church 
better business methods. I do not 
mean by that the hardness of ordi- 
137 



THE LAYMAN 

nary commercialism, but thorough- 
ness and accuracy and attention to de- 
tails in such a way as to obtain finan- 
cial security. In the third place, it 
has organized our Church for all its 
financial efforts, so that missionary 
work, educational work, the support 
of our ministry and the care for our 
aged ministers and widows have the 
co-operation and support and business 
ability of our best men. Again, on 
our circuits it relieves our ministers 
of a good deal of the secular side of 
Church management, which in days 
that I can remember, as I have been 
for over fifty years a Methodist minis- 
ter, occupied a good deal of the time 
and energy of our ministry, especially 
in the country districts. "When our 
business men know that they will 
come up first to our District Meeting, 
and then to the Annual Conference, at 
the end of every year presenting the 
financial reports of their districts and 

138 



WHERE LAYMEN PARTICIPATE 

circuits, under the criticism of clear- 
headed business men from all parts 
of the province, you will see that it 
is their interest and it becomes their 
ambition to present a creditable re- 
port to their Conference. We have no 
trouble, I may say, with bossism or 
political methods to which you refer. 
We have, it is true, had division of 
sentiment on various questions, and 
sometimes more or less canvassing as 
well as discussion preparatory to the 
settlement of these questions, but I 
do not know that this has gone be- 
yond that freedom of discussion and 
thought and expression of opinion 
which is necessary under any form of 
democratic institutions. I think that, 
perhaps, in giving these reasons for 
my opinion that lay representation 
has been to us as a Church of decided 
advantage, I have answered all your 
questions, and I may only add with 
special reference to the Annual Con- 

139 



THE LAYMAN 

ferences, to which you more particu- 
larly referred that our Annual Con- 
ference alone deals with financial 
returns from our various circuits and 
stations, and, hence, is the one place 
where the opinion of the laymen is ex- 
ercised to the greatest advantage to 
the connexion as a whole. — Kappa. 

Our polity, you know, is decidedly 
democratic, while I have been accus- 
tomed to think of yours as more mo- 
narchical — shall I say, nearer Brit- 
ish? Laymen with us have equality 
of numbers with ministers in General, 
Annual, and District Conferences, 
and Quarterly Conferences ; so it is no 
novelty. 

In my opinion the presence of lay- 
men in our Annual Conferences is a 
decided advantage, both to them and 
to the ministers, and so to the Church 
at large. In our system we confine 
certain business, as examination of 

140 



WHERE LAYMEN PARTICIPATE 

candidates, graduation of ministers, 
election to orders, to a ministerial ses- 
sion, and this ministerial session is 
held a day or two before the General 
Session; so it is sometimes difficult to 
get the laymen interested in what re- 
mains ; but for the most part they take 
an active interest in the committee 
business and Church enterprises, so 
they are a help to the people at home. 
As to ecclesiastical politics, they 
are not troublesome. This may result 
somewhat from our frequent elections 
and changes of officiary; besides, our 
laymen have the privilege of meeting 
by themselves during the Annual Con- 
ference, and considering and discuss- 
ing Church interests; this we have 
found to be a benefit regarding minis- 
ters ' salaries and the support of col- 
leges, etc. Further, as a rule, they 
are theologically and Biblically more 
conservative than some preachers. 
Xot so aerial, speculative, etc. The 

141 



THE LAYMAN 

main trouble is, if some of them are 
rich, high-minded, or, like other rich 
men, they want their own opinions, 
schemes, and ways. Plutocracy is no 
wiser, better, or more generous in the 
house of God than in the Common- 
wealth. 

Debates in Conference are some- 
times benefited by the presence of 
hard-headed laymen presiding in as- 
semblies. I sometimes find that gen- 
uine common-sense, even worldly ex- 
perience, is worth something. It is 
true enough that we preachers, with 
all our learning, all our philosophy, 
all our theology, all our criticism and 
idealism are not practical enough for 
this ragged world. — Lambda. 

In our Church the matter works out 
fairly well. I do n't think it could be 
voted out by either ministers or lay- 
men. To its credit may be placed the 
following : 

142 



WHERE LAYMEN PARTICIPATE 

1. It develops a fine spirit of fra- 
ternity between ministers and laymen. 

2. Laymen bring their business 
methods, which very greatly helps the 
work of the Conference. 

3. Some of them take quite an ac- 
tive part in the debates, and are quite 
as useful in committees as the minis- 
ters. 

4. They have a Laymen's Confer- 
ence, duly organized, during the An- 
nual Conference session, where they 
discuss matters pertaining to their in- 
terests and report to the Annual Con- 
ference the results of their discussion 
for information. — Omicbon. 



143 



CHAPTER IX 

THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF 
THE CHURCH 

"That man is right," said Ibsen, 
"who stands closest to the future." 
The standard, the only standard, by 
which to measure a proposed altera- 
tion is not some yesterday, but yester- 
day maturing into to-morrow. Prin- 
ciples do not change, nor do their 
glory and their inspiration; but the 
application of them may and does, 
growing out of latent yesterdays into 
richer, fuller to-morrows. That is the 
ever present, ever acting law of God. 
Evolution? What is it but the pro- 
gressive development of resident 
forces? Is God in the acorn but not 
144 






THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

in the oak? Methodism is a laymen's 
movement. The presence of the laity 
is always among the resident forces in 
Methodism. God forced it there. Wes- 
ley unwillingly let the bulb burst into 
flower; he allowed the presence and 
activity of laymen because the pres- 
sure of Providence overmastered his 
disinclination. The laity have been 
permitted to come to a large partici- 
pation in legislation for the Church 
life and polity ; but it remains to wel- 
come the laity to a participation in the 
business Conference of the Church. 
That is the orb ahead. We follow the 
gleam. 

If this writer might be permitted to 
ask a favor of those who are inter- 
ested enough to read this chapter, it 
would be this: that they hold their 
criticisms in suspense until they have 
10 145 



THE LAYMAN 

finished the chapter, and then read it 
the second time, criticising every item 
in detail. If this writer may be per- 
mitted to ask an added favor, it would 
fee that they submit their criticisms to 
him by mail: he will vastly appreciate 
it. and. should a second edition of the 
little book be called for. he may em- 
body their criticisms and suggestions, 
in summary at least, in an appendix; 
the Church may then come to an in- 
telligent and definite conclusion on 
the whole question ; then, moreover. 
we may expect action that will in- 
spire, and not depress, every interest 
appertaining to the Church, and af- 
fecting the Church to the very limits 
of the earth. 

It may now be laid down as a funda- 
mental postulate that there should be, 
there must be, and sooner or later 
U6 



THE AXXUAL COXFEREXCE 

there is certain to be, an Annual Con- 
ference of the Church. This has been 
previously shown to be inevitable. 

Let it be assumed that the sessions 
of the Conference will begin as now, 
on Wednesday or Thursday — the ma- 
jor Conferences on Wednesday, and 

each Conference as common sense 
may indicate. If we treat all the Con- 
ferences as beginning on Wednesday, 

the exceptional instances are such 
that the same reason which decides 
that the Annual Conference may be- 
gin on Thursday would apply in any 
condensation of the Conference of the 
laity. That offers no problem. 

On Wednesday, then, the Annual 
Conference would convene. Both min- 
isterial and lay members would be in 
attendance. The usual solemn exer- 
cises incident to the opening of the 

147 



THE LAYMAN 

Annual Conference would be partici- 
pated in: the Holy Communion, the 
hymns, Scriptures, and the remarks 
of the presiding bishop, the addresses 
of welcome, the response, and all that 
is incident to the formal beginning of 
this Annual Conference of the Church. 

The organization of the Conference 
would then proceed, the calling of the 
roll, the choosing of officers, the fixing 
of the bar of the Conference, the ap- 
pointment of the committees, the fix- 
ing of the hour of adjournment, 
speeches, and other business incident 
to the opening of the session. 

In the afternoon might be held the 
session for the collecting of the sta- 
tistics and for hearing the reports of 
the district superintendents. Then 
might follow adjournment and the 
meeting of the committees. In the 
148 



THE ANNUAL CONFEKENCE 

evening a session devoted, as now, to 
anniversaries, with persons desig- 
nated to preside, and one of the secre- 
taries to put into a paragraph for the 
Conference Journal a statement of 
the program. 

Thursday morning the Pastoral Ses- 
sion and the Lay Session would meet 
separately. This involves no parlia- 
mentary tangle. Such lay and pas- 
toral sessions meeting simultaneously 
are provided for at the present mo- 
ment by one of the most important of 
the world's Methodist bodies. Of the 
Methodist Church in Canada we are 
informed : "We have a Laymen's Con- 
ference duly organized during the An- 
nual Conference Session, where they 
discuss matters and report to the An- 
nual Conference the results of their 
discussion for information." This 
149 



THE LAYMAN 

offers no problem, moreover, since 
such a session is at present provided 
for under the name and title of "Lay- 
men's Association." ~SVe shall recur 
to this presently. 

The Pastoral Session, 

Most of the Methodist bodies of the 
world hold such a pastoral session as 
examines and directs all matters re- 
lating to the admission of candidates 
for the ministry, all examinations, all 
questions of ministerial character and 
efficiency, all trials and appeals. It 
must be plain that this is both logical 
and proper. The laity in the Quar- 
terly Conference or District Confer- 
ence recommend the applicant for ad- 
mission into the traveling ministry; 
the applicant comes to the door of the 
Conference and the ministry, through 
150 



THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

various committees, kind but exact 
and insistent, pass the candidate in 
review both as to his present intellec- 
tual qualifications, his aptness, and his 
personal life. It examines him through 
a series of four years of strenuous 
study; it inquires as to his finances, 
whether he is in debt so as to seriously 
embarrass himself [and others] ; it 
prescribes a course of reading; it may 
place him especially under the charge 
and eye of the district superintend- 
ent ; it may recommend that he be left 
without appointment to attend one of 
our schools. Thus, when the laity has 
through the Quarterly Conference 
nominated the applicant for orders 
for admission into the traveling con- 
nection, the ministry prescribes a 
course of training for a perfect effi- 
ciency, and examines him as is already 
151 



THE LAYMAN 

set forth, thus subjecting the candi- 
date to those tests and that discipline 
which "will make him ' i approved unto 
God, a workman that needeth not to 
be ashamed, handling aright the Word 
of Truth." Mr. Wesley quotes these 
solemn words of the apostle: "I 
charge thee before God and the Lord 
Jesus Christ, who shall judge the 
quick and the dead at His appearing, 
to preach the Word, be instant in sea- 
son, out of season; reprove, rebuke, 
exhort with all long suffering." If 
the candidate sustains the expecta- 
tions of the laity which has put him 
in nomination, if he bends with zest to 
his studies, if he shows himself faith- 
ful as a pastor of the flock, the min- 
istry approves, and admits him into 
its number. If he shows himself lack- 
ing, if it thus becomes evident that 
152 



THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

the laity was mistaken in its recom- 
mendation, the ministry, as is its 
bounden duty, kindly but firmly exer- 
cises its power of veto, and the can- 
didate becomes again a member of 
the Quarterly Conference to exercise 
such gifts as he may possess in such 
fields as may open to him. 

This is as it should be. This is as 
it is, with perhaps two or three ex- 
ceptions, in all the Methodist bodies 
where laymen sit in the Annual Con- 
ference. It may be taken for granted, 
we sincerely hope, that this will be or- 
ganically imbedded in the new order 
by which laymen will take their just 
and benign place in the Annual Con- 
ference of the Church. 

Thus organized the pastoral session 
of the Annual Conference would take 
up these questions: 
153 



THE LAYMAN 

"Who have been Eeceived on Trial? 

(a) In studies of the First Year. 

(&.) In studies of the Third Year. 

Who have been Continued on 

Trial? 

(a) In studies of the First Year. 
(&) In studies of the Second 
Year. 

(c) In studies of the Third Year. 

(d) In studies of the Fourth 

Year. 
"Who have been Discontinued? 
"Who have been Admitted into Full 
Membership ? 

(a) Elected and ordained Dea- 
cons this year. 
(&) Elected and ordained Dea- 
cons previously. 
What Members are in studies of 
Third Year? 

(a) Admitted into Full Member- 

ship this year. 

(b) Admitted into Full Member- 

ship previously. 
154 



THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

What Members are in studies of 
Fourth Year? 

What Members have completed the 
Conference Course of Study? 

(a) Elected and ordained Elders 

this year. 

(b) Elected and ordained Elders 

previously. 
What others have been elected and 
ordained Deacons? 

(a) As Local Preachers. 

(b) Under Missionary Rule. 

(c) Under Seminary Rule. 
What others have been elected and 

ordained Elders? 

(a) As Local Deacons. 
(6) Under Missionary Rule. 
(c) Under Seminary Rule. 
Was the character of each Preacher 
examined? 

Who have been Transferred, and to 
what Conferences? 

Who have been Located at their own 
request ? 

155 



THE LAYMAN 

Who have been Located? 

Who have Withdrawn? 

Who have been permitted to With- 
draw under Charges or Complaints? 

Who have been Expelled? 

What other Personal Notation 
should be made? 

Note. — Here enter with adequate statement of facts, 
the names of, I. Those whose Orders have been recog- 
nized without admission to the Annual Conference. 
II. Those whose Credentials have been restored. III. 
Those formerly expelled, but now restored by the 
action of a Judicial or General Conference. 

Who are the Supernumerary 
Preachers ? 

Who are the Superannuated 
Preachers ? 

Who are the Triers of Appeals ? 

Who have been Received by Trans- 
fer, and from what Conferences? 

Who have been Readmitted? 

Note — Here enter also date of Location and the 
Conference which granted it. 

Who have been Received on Creden- 
tials, and from what Churches ? 
156 



THE ANNUAL COXFEEEXCE 

The Pastoral Session shall have 
power to hear a complaint against its 
members, and may try, reprove, sus- 
pend, deprive of Ministerial Office and 
Credentials, expel or acquit any of 
them against whom charges may be 
preferred. 

The Election and, so far as it is 
practicable, the Ordination of Elders 
and Deacons should be done at the An- 
nual Conference. 

The Lay Session. 

The Lay Session will organize as is 
customary. 

May we be permitted to suggest the 
formation of a business committee of 
say two from each district, to whom 
might be referred any matters the ses- 
sion might wish to refer to it. Among 
other matters it might prepare in ad- 
vance, so far as practicable, the pro- 
gram, so as to insure a session of the 
157 



THE LAYMAN 

largest profit; and such, a committee 
might prove a valuable time-saver on 
matters more or less unbalanced, ir- 
relevant, if not trivial, by which the 
time of the session would be frittered 
away. 

Inasmuch as the formal business of 
the Business Session will pass the mo- 
tions relating to the work of the 
Churches, it is fair to assume that a 
very important section of the Lay 
Session will be devoted to the study 
of conditions and needs of the Church, 
particularly in the area of the Confer- 
ence. For our layinen to do this and 
do it exhaustively and thoroughly, 
would justify any change in our polity 
necessary to secure such an end. Let 
us take a concrete illustration: 

Suppose it were fixed that the next 
Lay Session would take up the two 
158 



THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

questions, "The Church in the Open 
Country," and "The Church and the 
Boy;" suppose it should he under- 
stood that every member of the next 
Conference would be expected to read 
and inwardly digest three little books, 
"Report of the Commission on 
Country Life," first published as 
Senate Document Xo. 705, 60th Con- 
gress, 2d Session, for the use of Con- 
gress, which was reprinted by the 
Spokane Chamber of Commerce for 
use in the country-life movement in 
the Northwest; "The Church in the 
Open Country; a Study of the Church 
for the Working Farmer," prepared 
by Dr. "Warren H. TVilson for Mis- 
sion Study Classes under the direc- 
tion of the Missionary Education 
Movement of the United States and 
Canada, and published by the Meth- 
159 



THE LAYMAN 

odist Book Concern; and in particular 
that remarkable little book, "Rural 
Christendom, ' ' by the writing of which 
Dr. Charles Roads, of the Philadelphia 
Annual Conference, won the prize of 
one thousand dollars given by the 
American Sunday School Union — a 
book of the highest value — 

And suppose it was an expectation 
amounting to an unwritten law of the 
Lay Session that its members were 
expected not only to read these books, 
but to think through such questions 
as: What is the proper social serv- 
ice of the country church? How can 
the Church serve the community as 
well as individuals? In what should 
the minister lead? Is it possible to 
have a really prosperous agricultural 
community without a Church? "What 
can the Church do as an organizing 
160 



THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

center? Why do so many young peo- 
ple leave the farm for the city? To 
what extent ought recreation be pro- 
vided by the Church? Make a list 
of the wholesome amusements the 
Church can consistently promote. 
How, in particular, can the country 
Church promote patriotism, educa- 
tion, good morals? How can the 
country Church utilize the work of the 
agricultural college in "extension 
classes?" Should the circuit system 
of pastoral appointments be encour- 
aged? To what extent ought lay 
preaching be arranged? 

And suppose, from the bewildering 
multitude of books on boy life, the 
Conference should select just one 
great little book, "Boy Training," 
introduced by Ernest Thompson Se- 
ton, Chief Scout of the Boy Scouts 
11 161 



THE LAYMAN 

of America, who proposes to have 
boys trained "to the desolation of 
our jails," which is edited by that re- 
markable Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation worker, John L. Alexander, 
secretary of the Boy Scouts of 
America, and the sixteen chapters of 
which are written by men who know 
and understand, making the little book 
worth its weight in gold; and then 
suppose such questions as these had 
been pondered along the lines treated 
in this book: At what age do boys 
"fall?" What is the relation of the 
Sunday school to the public school? 
How can we save the boy? What does 
psychology have to say about the boy? 
The boy's temptations in the city, in 
the country? What are ideal boys' 
clubs? How can the Bible be made 
interesting and real to boys? How 
162 



THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

can we encourage the study of nature? 
"What is our social responsibility to 
the adolescent boy? 

And suppose one hundred earnest 
men, laymen who are real factors in 
the work of their individual Churches, 
should spend the good part of a day, 
not in platitudinous, blind-man's-buff 
of talk that meant nothing anyhow, 
but in getting down to the bottom of 
the matter, in these two topics, and 
then, having passed intelligent and 
really meritorious resolutions on these 
topics, should go back to their charges 
to set in motion the conclusions ar- 
rived at, would not a new thrill of 
power pass through the Churches? 
Would it not give a fresh meaning to 
the Sunday school, to the Church in 
the open country? And these sug- 
gested topics for the year's thought, 
163 



THE LAYMAN 

and the intense debates, experiences, 
question drawer of the Lay Session, 
constitute but one item of the Lav 
Session. All that is generally or 
locally associated with our "Laymen's 
Associations" "would still be there. 

Moreover, in the two subjects we 
have taken at random we have not 
exhausted, we have scarcely hinted at, 
the list of most profitable considera- 
tions for reinvigorating the Churches. 
May we suggest a few from the 
long catalogue which instantly occurs 
to the mind? Suppose for a year 
the two subjects were " Financing 
the Church" and "Our Foreign 
Churches;" suppose, from the shelf 
of books on tithing, the little book 
"Gems of Thought on Tithing, by 
Ministers and Laymen of All Denom- 
inations," compiled by George TV. 
164 



THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

Brown, and ' ' Our Christian Steward- 
ship," by J. W. Duncan, were taken 
for this universal reading, and with 
it our tract literature on systematic 
giving; suppose the merits of the du- 
plex envelope system were studied, 
tested, and discussed, with crisp re- 
ports of the experiences of the 
charges ; and then, suppose some book 
like Dr. John E. Mott's "The De- 
cisive Hour in Christian Missions,'' 
put forth just after the World Mis- 
sionary Conference in Edinburgh — 
"the most significant gathering ever 
held in the interest of the world's 
evangelization," were read, or, per- 
haps better, as the first book to be 
read, Dr. Arthur J. Brown's "The 
"Why and How of Foreign Missions," 
a book of the most intense interest; 
what can we imagine the value of this 
165 



THE LAYMAN 

by-product of the Lay Session of the 
Annual Conference would be in thou- 
sands of charges throughout the land? 

There would remain the hundred no 
less compelling themes of the polity of 
Methodism : Ecumenical Methodism ; 
Our Cities; Bible Classes for Men; 
Personal Eecruiting for Souls ; Broth- 
erhoods in the Various Churches; 
"What is the Problem of Saving Amer- 
ica^ and What is Methodism doing to 
Answer the Problem? Is the "Race 
Question" becoming more Acute, and 
"What Should the Church Do towards 
its Solution? The Care of the Worn- 
out Minister; Church Colleges and 
State Colleges; Intemperance; Mar- 
riage and Divorce ; and so on without 
limit. The subjects given are merely 
suggestive. 

Let us file a caveat, lest the hasty 
166 



THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

reader be led to leap to the conclu- 
sion that the Lay Session of the An- 
nual Conference is to be considered 
as a kind of convention for the hear- 
ing of essays. That is precisely what 
it is not. TVe have simply named 
some possible by-products of the Lay 
Session which will do away with the 
dear little essays and the irrelevant 
talk which eats up the time of the 
Lay Associations with superficialities. 
Fundamentally, what the Lay Ses- 
sion does is to incorporate the present 
Lay Association into the very fabric 
of the Annual Conference ; it fixes the 
status of the Lay Association, and 
gives it a tenfold meaning beyond 
what it has at this moment. All the 
Lay Association can possibly be is 
here contemplated, only adding to its 
efficiency by making it also a great 
167 



THE LAYMAN 

training school and parliament where 
serious laymen will touch the very 
depths of the genius and destiny of 
the great Wesley an principle. 

The Business Session. 

We use this name, as it seems neces- 
sary. It signifies the high water mark 
of the Annual Conference of the 
Church, in comparison with which all 
else is technique. It would convene 
Friday morning, with the officers, 
rules, committees, already constituted 
at the opening session. In the lan- 
guage of the Discipline : The business 
of the Business Session would be, in 
part, to inquire: 

Is this Annual Conference incor- 
porated according to the requirement 
of the Discipline ? 

Who have died? 

168 



THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

What is the Statistical Eeport for 
this year? 

What is the aggregate of the Be- 
nevolent Collections ordered by the 
General Conference, as reported by 
the Conference Treasurer? 

What are the claims on the Confer- 
ence Fund? 

What has been received on these 
claims, and how has it been applied? 

What is the amount of the five per 
cent of collections for the Conference 
Claimants' Connectional Fund paid by 
the Treasurer to the Board of Confer- 
ence Claimants? 

Where are the Preachers stationed? 

Where shall the next Conference be 
held? 

The Business Session would receive 
and dispose of the reports of the 

Statistical Secretaries, 

Conference Treasurer, 
Board of Stewards, 
169 



THE LAYMAN 

Trustees of the Conference, 
Conference Deaconess Board, 
Administrators of Trust Funds, 
Trustees of Colleges, 
Trustees of Hospitals. 

There are sixty-nine questions in 
the Discipline relating to these re- 
ports. 

The Business Session would order, 
receive, and act upon the reports of 
the very important standing commit- 
tees and special committees on 

Educational Institutions, 
Home Missions, 
Foreign Missions, 
Bible Cause, 
Temperance, 
Periodical Literature, 
Epworth League, 
Peace and Arbitration, 
City Extension, 
Civil and Eeligious Liberty, 
170 



THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

Marriage and Divorce, 
Domestic Missions, 
"White Slavery, 
Publishing Interests, 
Sunday Schools, 
Training Schools, 
Superannuate Relief, 
"Woman's Home Missions, 
Woman's Foreign Missions, 
Sustentation Fund, 
State Universities, 
Brotherhood Work, 
Aid of Freedmen, 
Social Service, 
Sabbath Observance, 
Social Evil. 

The Business Session would act on 
all official appointments and deputa- 
tions, all officers to be chosen by the 
Conference, all trustees and commit- 
tees. 

The Business Session would already 
171 



THE LAYMAN 

have received the reports of the Dis- 
trict Superintendents, giving a close 
survey of the local societies during 
the past year; it would be present at 
the charge of the bishop to the candi- 
dates for admission into the itinerant 
ministry; it would participate in the 
impressive memorial service. 

The Business Session would be in 
charge of the evening and other an- 
niversaries. From beginning to end 
there would be an Annual Conference 
of the Church. What is now slurred 
over would be endowed with dignity. 
What is voted as an apportionment — - 
but which is in reality a levy — for 
various causes, would be done by the 
ministry and laity voting together and 
be harmonious with republican ideals. 
In brief, the Business Session would 
transact all the business of the 
172 



THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE 

Church. And the cumulative ad- 
vantage of it to the Church in deepen- 
ing the interest and the consecration 
of the laity ; in emphasizing the broth- 
erhood, the rights, the comradeship, 
the call to service, of all believers ; in 
promoting lay evangelism, in reviving 
circuits ; in promoting family religion, 
the love of our literature, the broad 
vision of the Kingdom ; in building the 
Church of to-morrow upon the un- 
shakable foundation stones of intelli- 
gence and shared and felt responsi- 
bility reaching everywhere — who can 
overestimate what it may mean to the 
coming Kingdom of God? 

Finally, it would bring the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church out of her iso- 
lation. No longer would she stand 
aloof from the other Caucasian Meth- 
odist bodies of the world, in an em- 
173 



THE LAYMAN 

barrassment in which her inherited 
position excluding her laity unhappily 
places her. By welcoming her laity 
to her business conference she would 
become the true companion of Ecu- 
menical Methodism. 

The practical application of the 
principle of lay membership in the 
Annual Conference as here projected 
may fail of adoption; but the prin- 
ciple itself, being shown to be both 
just and advantageous, can not fail, 
nor can it be long delayed. 



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